# Hammer Candlestick, Shooting Star, Hanging Man, Inverted Hammer

Source: https://www.tradicted.com/lessons/candlestick-patterns/hammer-candlestick-and-shooting-star/

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A hammer candlestick is a day with a long lower wick, a small body near the high and little or no wick on top, found after a fall.

Sellers pushed the price a long way down during the day. Buyers pushed it back up by the close.

The shooting star is the same candle upside down: a long upper wick and a small body near the low, found after a rise. Buyers pushed the price up and sellers pushed it back down.

Each shape has a second name. The hammer's shape after a rise is a hanging man. The shooting star's shape after a fall is an inverted hammer. The name says where the candle formed.

The free lesson on this page has three charts. You draw a line at a hammer's low and call what happens when the price comes back to it, name a shooting star, then meet the hanging man and the inverted hammer.

The charts are generated, with no ticker and no dates.

## One shape, two names

| Shape | After a fall | After a rise |
|---|---|---|
| Long lower wick, small body near the high | Hammer | Hanging man |
| Long upper wick, small body near the low | Inverted hammer | Shooting star |

In each case the long wick is at least twice the body and the other wick is short or missing. Reading a body and its wicks is the first lesson, [how to read candlesticks](/lessons/candlestick-patterns/how-to-read-candlesticks/). The other named shapes are on the [candlestick patterns](/lessons/candlestick-patterns/) page.

The color of the body does not change the name. Steve Nison, whose 1991 book *Japanese Candlestick Charting Techniques* brought candlestick charts to Western traders, wrote that in his experience a hammer works the same in green or red.

## What does a hammer candlestick look like?

The lesson's rule: a lower wick at least twice the body, little or no wick on top, after a fall. Nison set the same test and accepted two or three times the body.

A longer lower wick, a shorter upper wick and a smaller body make the shape clearer.

![A falling daily chart ending in a boxed green candle with a small body at the top and a lower wick about four times as long as the body](https://www.tradicted.com/lessons-img/cdl_l3-cdl_l3_c06.s1-a2ceeac4.webp)

*A hammer after two weeks of falling. The low came during the day, the close near the high.*

The lesson's hammer came after two weeks of falling, from about 157 to 144. It opened at 142.59, fell to 139.40 and closed at 143.32, near the top of the day's range.

The lower wick is 4.4 times the body. The wick on top is 12 cents.

The lesson then splits that day into 32 candles of 15 minutes each. Sellers had the first hours and dragged the price down to the low. Buyers took the rest of the day. The long lower wick is those first hours.

## What does a hammer candlestick mean?

Traders look for a hammer after a fall as a sign that selling may be easing. Sellers had the price far down and could not keep it there.

A hammer records a day that is over. Nison was careful with the word reversal: after a hammer the fall stops, which can mean a rise, a sideways stretch or, after a pause, more falling.

He compared a reversal pattern to a car's brake lights. They show the car stopping. They do not show where it drives next.

A hammer reads as bullish because of where it forms, after a fall. On its own it says buyers won back one day.

## Why do traders watch the hammer's low?

The low is the price where sellers ran out that day. Nison treated a hammer's low as support, broken only by a close under it.

The lesson asks you to draw a line at the tip of the lower wick, 139.40. Twelve days later the price is back at the line. You call it: bounce or break?

![The same chart a month later with a horizontal line at the hammer's low: the price comes back down to the line, touches it and climbs](https://www.tradicted.com/lessons-img/cdl_l3-cdl_l3_c06.s4-4df0e633.webp)

*Twelve days later the price came back to the hammer's low. It closed above the line and climbed.*

It bounced. That day's wick dipped 6 cents under the line. The close came back above it, at 142.30. The next two days held above the line. Ten days later the price closed at 150.77.

A wick that pokes through is not a break. The close decides, as with any [support and resistance zone](/lessons/support-and-resistance/how-to-draw-support-and-resistance/).

## What is a shooting star candlestick?

The lesson's rule for a shooting star: an upper wick twice the body or longer, little or no wick underneath, after a rise.

Nison's ideal shooting star opens with a gap above the day before. The lesson's star has a gap on each side.

![A rising daily chart with three boxed candles at the top: the middle one sits above both neighbors with a tiny body near its low and a long upper wick](https://www.tradicted.com/lessons-img/cdl_l3-cdl_l3_c07.s0-19d12d60.webp)

*A shooting star with a gap on each side. Its upper wick is six times its body.*

After a rise from about 145 to 165, the day opened at 166.53, above the previous day's high of 165.48. It reached 169.45 and closed at 166.06. The upper wick is six times the body.

The next morning the price opened at 164.78 and never got back up to the star's low that day. The star sits on its own above both neighbors.

Traders read a shooting star as buyers getting tired. They pushed the price far up and sellers took it all back by the close. Nison himself did not count it among the major reversal signals.

With no body at all, the same day would be a [gravestone doji](/lessons/candlestick-patterns/doji-candle/).

![The same rising chart ten days later: after the shooting star the price falls for most of two weeks](https://www.tradicted.com/lessons-img/cdl_l3-cdl_l3_c07.s2-7cb15699.webp)

*After the shooting star the price fell. Seven of the ten days after the question were red.*

On the lesson chart, one later day rose back to 167.63, still under the star's high. Then the price fell. Seven of the ten days after the star were red, down to 150.29.

## What is a hanging man candlestick?

A hanging man is the hammer's shape after a rise.

![A rising daily chart ending in a boxed red candle with a small body at the top and a long lower wick](https://www.tradicted.com/lessons-img/cdl_l3-cdl_l3_c08.s0-913bcf33.webp)

*The hammer's shape after a rise: a hanging man.*

The lesson's hanging man came after a rise from about 145 to 154. It opened at 153.88, fell to 150.66 and closed at 153.29. The lower wick is 4.5 times the body.

Some traders read it the way they read a shooting star, as buyers getting tired. Nison wanted more before calling it bearish: a later close under its body.

![The same chart nine days later: the price kept rising well above the hanging man](https://www.tradicted.com/lessons-img/cdl_l3-cdl_l3_c08.s2-7c281a33.webp)

*The rise kept going. No day closed under the hanging man's body for almost three weeks.*

The lesson asks up or down. The rise kept going.

The next day closed at 154.00, above the body. Nine days later the price reached 160.33. Nison showed the same thing in his own examples: a hanging man that never gets a close under its body leaves the rise in place.

## How do you tell a hammer from a hanging man?

By what came before. After a fall the shape is a hammer. After a rise it is a hanging man.

Nison asked more of the hanging man. A hammer can come after a short decline.

A hanging man wants a long rise before it, ideally to a new high, and a close under its body afterwards. The hammer needs no such close.

## What is an inverted hammer?

An inverted hammer is the shooting star's shape after a fall.

![A daily chart that rises, then falls for weeks and ends in a boxed green candle with a small body at the bottom and a long upper wick](https://www.tradicted.com/lessons-img/cdl_l3-cdl_l3_c08.s3-61ce692c.webp)

*The shooting star's shape after a fall: an inverted hammer.*

On the lesson's third chart the price fell from 160.33 to 148.75 over almost three weeks. Then a day opened at 149.11, reached 151.74 and closed at 149.59. The upper wick is 4.5 times the body.

Nison wanted an inverted hammer confirmed by the next day opening above its body, and better still by a close above it. The lesson stops on the inverted hammer, so you do not see what came next.

## Key points

- A hammer: a lower wick twice the body or longer, the body at the top of the range, after a fall.
- A shooting star is its mirror image after a rise.
- Swap what came before and the names change: hanging man after a rise, inverted hammer after a fall.
- The color of the body does not change the name.
- Traders watch a hammer's low as a level. A wick through it is not a break. The close decides.
- Any of the four can fail. The name says where a candle formed, not what comes next.

Press Start above and draw the line at the hammer's low. A hammer at a price where the chart turned before counts for more. The lesson on [how to find and draw support and resistance zones](/lessons/support-and-resistance/how-to-draw-support-and-resistance/) shows how to mark those prices. The next lesson moves from one candle to two: the [engulfing candle](/lessons/candlestick-patterns/engulfing-candle/).