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Home / Technical Analysis / Candlestick patterns / Hanging Man

Candlestick formation · Bearish

Hanging Man

What is it, in one line

The hammer shape, but appearing after a rise instead.

Bearish · 1 candle · verdict: rule and thresholds below

Bearish 1 candle Traditional claim
Hanging Man — 11 price bars ending on the bar where the Hanging Man completes. The final bar is the formation, shaded; the bars before it are the prior context the rule requires.
Verified example · fires the Hanging Man rule · not a schematic

What has to be true

The hammer shape, but appearing after a rise instead. The engine checks the formation as an executable condition over open, high, low and close, with a trend filter applied before the count is kept.

candles = 1 candle
direction = Bearish
trend filter = prior advance
forward window = 10 bars

Method

What the engine tests

Geometrically identical to a hammer — small body at the top of the range, long lower wick — but occurring after a run of rising prices rather than falling ones. Nothing about the candle itself distinguishes the two.

Family
Candlestick
Bars
Single bar
Direction
Bearish
Class
Reversal
Prior context
Uptrend
TA-Lib
CDLHANGINGMAN

The traditional claim

Traditionally read as a bearish reversal signal. That the same shape is given opposite meanings depending on what preceded it is a claim the conditioning grid can test directly.

How this detection is wrong

Identical geometry to a hammer. The only difference is minPriorSlope. If the conditioning grid shows no measurable difference between the two, that finding belongs on both pages.

The thresholds the detector uses

Published so the count can be reproduced. Every figure below is a parameter of the rule, not a preference: change one and the occurrence count changes with it.

Detection parameters for the Hanging Man
ParameterMeaningDefault
maxBodyPctbody, at most, as a share of the range0.33
minLowerPctlower wick, at least, as a share of the range0.5
maxUpperPctupper wick, at most, as a share of the range0.12
minLowerToBodylower wick, as a multiple of the body2
trendPeriodbars of prior trend inspected5
minPriorSlopeprior slope must be above1
strict
Tighter thresholds. Fewer detections, each a cleaner example.
maxBodyPct 0.25 · minLowerPct 0.6 · maxUpperPct 0.08 · minPriorSlope 1.5
loose
Wider thresholds. More detections, more marginal ones.
maxBodyPct 0.4 · minLowerPct 0.45 · maxUpperPct 0.2 · minPriorSlope 0.5
no-context
The prior-trend requirement removed, so the shape alone fires.
minPriorSlope not applied

Easily mistaken for

These share enough geometry that a detector can return more than one of them on the same bar. The engine reports every match rather than picking a winner.

Every pair on the site that can be mistaken for another, and what separates each: the look-alikes index.

Common questions

What is a Hanging Man candlestick pattern?

Geometrically identical to a hammer — small body at the top of the range, long lower wick — but occurring after a run of rising prices rather than falling ones. Nothing about the candle itself distinguishes the two. The detector also requires a prior uptrend, so the same shape in the wrong context is not counted.

Is the Hanging Man bullish or bearish?

It is read as bearish. Traditionally read as a bearish reversal signal. That the same shape is given opposite meanings depending on what preceded it is a claim the conditioning grid can test directly.

When is a Hanging Man not a Hanging Man?

Identical geometry to a hammer. The only difference is minPriorSlope. If the conditioning grid shows no measurable difference between the two, that finding belongs on both pages.

How is a Hanging Man detected?

As an executable rule over open, high, low and close, with 6 named parameters — including body, at most, as a share of the range 0.33, lower wick, at least, as a share of the range 0.5, upper wick, at most, as a share of the range 0.12 — all published on this page so the count can be reproduced. Strict and loose variants are defined as well, so the sensitivity of the count to those thresholds is visible rather than assumed.

Measurement pending re-run

No hit rate is published here yet. The run that would supply one was computed on engine ca6d9e36c81c; the engine is now cfb08765de7c. Its candlestick rows included the still-forming bar, and it predates the chart formations entirely, so those figures have been withdrawn rather than published with a caveat. The definition above is unaffected: it is what the detector tests, and no re-run changes it.

Same shape, opposite reading

Hammer

These two are the same shape. Only the prior trend separates them — this one requires a preceding uptrend, the other a preceding downtrend. A detector that ignores context returns both on the same bar, which is why the prior-slope threshold is a published parameter here rather than a hidden assumption.

Hammer: A small body at the top of the range with a long lower wick, following a decline.

How this was measured →

Other single-candle formations

All 107 →
Shooting Star Small body at the bottom with a long upper wick, after a rise.
Doji Open and close within a hair of each other. Indecision by definition.
Dragonfly Doji A doji whose open and close sit at the top of the range.
Gravestone Doji A doji whose open and close sit at the bottom of the range.

Size a trade on this setup before you take it.