Hammers & Shooters in TheStrat
TheStrat types candles by what they broke; shape tells you how the fight inside the bar actually went. A hammer — long lower wick, close near the top — says sellers had it and lost it. A shooter is the mirror: buyers reached, got sold, and the close died near the lows. Neither is a trade by itself. Attached to the right scenario, each is a conviction multiplier.
What the wick measures
A long wick is a price the market visited and refused to keep. The common convention — ours included — wants the wick at least two to three times the body, with the close pinned in the top (hammer) or bottom (shooter) of the range. The stricter the shape, the clearer the rejection it records.
Shape plus scenario
The combinations do the work. A 2d that closes as a hammer is a warning that the breakdown is failing while the bar is still printing — often one bar ahead of a full failed 2. A shooter at the top of a run of 2-ups is the first mechanical evidence of exhaustion. An inside bar with hammer shape leans the coil's odds toward the upside trigger. Our FORMED alerts badge these shapes for exactly this reason.
Location is everything
A hammer in the middle of a range is noise; a hammer printed into a flush of a session low — where stops just ran — is the trap springing in real time. Shape earns its weight at extremes: prior lows and highs, mother-bar edges, broadening-formation rails, and the far end of stretched moves.
See it live, right now
Every concept on this page is detected in real time across 190+ tickers — candle typing, trigger levels, and alerts the second a level breaks.
FAQ
What is the difference between a hammer and a failed 2d?
The hammer is the candle's shape; the failed 2d is the scenario event (a breakdown trading back through its level). They often describe the same bar — the hammer is what the failure looks like.
What is a momo hammer?
A stricter hammer: the lower wick still dominates but the upper wick is nearly absent, closing at the very top of the range — maximum one-sided rejection.
Do hammers work as buy signals alone?
No. Shape without a broken level is opinion. TheStrat waits for the trigger — typically the break of the hammer's high — so the entry is an event, not an interpretation.
Keep learning
Educational content, not financial advice. Patterns describe probabilities, not promises.