
Candlestick rejection is a trading strategy that involves using price rejection to invalidate counter-trend momentum and continue trades. It is a pure price action swing trading strategy that helps traders capture spots where market prices are at rest during retracements before rejoining the dominant trend. This strategy is used to identify when a trend is likely to stop or reverse, helping traders exit trades, ride trends, or find trend reversal entries. The key elements of this strategy are found in the price action formation of long wicks occurring at key price levels, with the larger the wick, the better. Traders can also use pivot points and Fibonacci levels to confirm rejections.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Rejection candle formation | Rejection blocks are formed when the price sharply moves to a level but is quickly rejected, leaving a prominent wick or shadow on the candlestick |
| Rejection blocks as zones of support or resistance | Rejection blocks act as dynamic zones of support or resistance, where price movement sharply reverses, often due to significant buying or selling pressure |
| Types of rejection blocks | Bullish rejection block, bearish rejection block |
| Confirmation before trade | It is recommended to wait for some form of confirmation before placing a trade at a rejection block, such as a change in character or market structure shift on a lower timeframe |
| Candlestick patterns | The pin bar is a critical candlestick pattern that helps identify rejections. It has a big upper and lower wick, indicating strong price rejection |
| Rejection price patterns | Head and Shoulders pattern, Exhaustion gap, Bollinger Bands®, Dark Cloud Cover pattern, Shooting Star pattern, Bearish Kicker pattern |
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What You'll Learn

Identify rejection blocks
Rejection blocks are formed when the price sharply moves to a level but is quickly rejected, leaving a prominent wick or shadow on the candlestick. They act as dynamic zones of support or resistance. When the price revisits them, it often reacts at that level again, making these blocks useful for predicting potential reversals or continuations in price movement.
To effectively identify rejection blocks, you need to be familiar with price action and understand key concepts in market structure. The first step is identifying significant highs or lows on your price chart. These levels often act as psychological points where the price either reverses or breaks out. Rejection blocks are likely to form around these areas, where liquidity resides. Key levels can be identified through historical price action, pivot points, or Fibonacci retracement levels.
One characteristic of rejection blocks is a false breakout. The price may break above or below a key level, only to swiftly reverse direction. Another way to identify rejection blocks is through careful candlestick analysis. Here are some patterns to look for:
- Pin Bar Formations: These are candles with long wicks that signal a strong rejection of a price level. In a bullish scenario, a pin bar with a long lower wick suggests buyers are stepping in after a rejection, forming a rejection block.
- Doji Candles: While doji candles alone are not sufficient, when they occur near key levels, they indicate indecision and can form part of a broader rejection block.
- Engulfing Patterns: A bearish engulfing pattern at the top of a swing or a bullish engulfing pattern at the bottom can also be indicative of a rejection block, particularly when the candle’s reversal is abrupt.
Aggressive traders will place their trade entry just at the rejection block, which makes sense if the larger market context is right. However, it is recommended that you wait for some form of confirmation before you place your trade at a rejection block. This confirmation could be in the form of a change of character or market structure shift on a lower timeframe, a clear displacement in the right direction that leaves an FVG behind, or even candlestick patterns like the engulfing bar.
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Confirm a shift in market sentiment
Candlestick charts are a useful tool for recognizing market sentiment and the balance of power between bulls and bears. They can be used to predict short-term price movements and identify potential reversals.
Rejection candles are a type of candlestick pattern that signals a potential reversal in price direction. They occur when the market attempts to move in one direction but is quickly rejected, resulting in a sharp reversal. These candles often have long wicks or shadows, indicating that buyers or sellers stepped in to push the prices back.
To confirm a shift in market sentiment, it is important to analyze the context and identify key characteristics. Here are some strategies to confirm a shift in market sentiment:
- Identify Long Wicks: Long wicks on rejection candles indicate that buyers or sellers are stepping in to overpower the other side. A long upper wick suggests that sellers eventually overpowered buyers, while a long lower wick indicates that buyers overcame initial selling pressure. The larger the wick, the stronger the rejection signal.
- Analyze Multiple Timeframes: Examine rejection candles on higher timeframes, such as daily charts, for more reliable signals. This helps to confirm the validity of the reversal signal.
- Combine with Other Technical Indicators: To increase accuracy, combine rejection candles with other technical indicators such as moving averages, RSI, or MACD. For example, if a price bounces off a support level and forms a bullish rejection, it confirms the strength of that support level.
- Fibonacci Levels: Look for rejection candles that occur at key Fibonacci levels. When rejections occur at these levels, they are considered stronger signals.
- Support and Resistance Levels: Rejection candles are particularly useful for identifying support and resistance levels. They highlight areas where the market has shown strong opposition to a price movement. For example, if a candle forms at a well-established resistance level, it suggests that the price is unlikely to break through, indicating a potential reversal.
- Market Structure Shift: Observe the overall market structure and context. Look for confirmation of a shift in market structure or a change in character on a lower timeframe. This could indicate that the previous trend is losing momentum and a reversal is imminent.
By incorporating these strategies and analyzing the characteristics of rejection candles, traders can confirm a shift in market sentiment and make more informed trading decisions.
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Understand price rejection
Understanding price rejection is a key part of trading rejection candles. Price rejection is a technical analysis concept that helps traders determine the strength and validation of a price level or zone. It is a strong indicator of a potential trend reversal, where market makers want to reverse the trend.
Price rejection is often identified through candlestick patterns, specifically the pin bar. The pin bar candlestick has a large upper and lower wick, indicating that the price went up and then down, or vice versa. This shows that buyers want to increase the price, but sell orders from institutions and banks decrease it. If the rejections form on the upper side of the candlesticks, it indicates selling pressure in the market, and if they form on the lower side, it shows buying pressure.
The bullish pin bar forms at a support or critical level and is a buy signal, whereas the bearish pin bar forms on the resistance zone or key level and is a sell signal. These patterns can be used to confirm support or resistance levels, as price rejection shows that a false breakout is trapping retail traders, and a trend reversal is imminent.
When identifying price rejection, it is important to wait for confirmation before placing a trade. This confirmation could be a change in market structure, a clear displacement, or candlestick patterns like the engulfing bar. Traders can also look for rejection blocks, which occur when the price strongly rejects a specific level, indicating a temporary shift in market sentiment. These blocks act as dynamic zones of support or resistance, and traders can wait for the price to return to this level and observe the reaction.
By understanding price rejection, traders can accurately forecast the market and make more informed decisions about entering or exiting trades, riding trends, or finding trend reversal entries.
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Identify candlestick patterns
Candlestick patterns are a popular tool for technical analysis in trading. They are visual representations of price movements that help traders interpret market movements and identify trading signals and opportunities. Each candlestick provides information about the price movement during a specified time interval. The colour of the candlestick, for instance, indicates whether the sentiment of the candle is bullish (positive, often green or white) or bearish (negative, often red or black).
To identify candlestick patterns, it is important to analyse the shape, size, colour, and position of the candlesticks. The length of the body of a candlestick, for example, represents the distance between the closing and opening prices during a particular time period. Long bodies imply strong directional movement, while short bodies indicate indecision among investors. Similarly, the length of the wick or shadow of a candlestick shows the high and low prices achieved during a particular time period. A long upper wick, for instance, indicates that buyers attempted to gain control but were pushed back by sellers.
There are several common candlestick patterns that traders can look out for. These include:
- Hammer: This pattern consists of a small body at the top of the candlestick and a long lower wick. It suggests a potential bullish reversal, indicating that buyers are stepping in after a downtrend.
- Inverted Hammer: This pattern features a small body at the bottom of the price range and a long upper wick. It potentially signals a reversal to an uptrend, suggesting that buying interest is increasing after a period of selling pressure.
- Bullish Engulfing: This pattern occurs when a smaller, bearish candlestick is followed by a larger, bullish candlestick that completely ‘engulfs’ the previous one. It indicates a potential trend reversal, suggesting that buyers are beginning to take control over sellers.
- Morning Star: This is a three-candle pattern that starts with a large bearish candlestick, followed by a smaller candlestick with a small body, and then a large bullish candlestick that closes beyond the midpoint of the first candle's body. It suggests a strong potential bullish reversal.
- Tweezer Bottom: This pattern usually appears after a prolonged bearish trend and consists of two consecutive candles with the same low, creating a shape that resembles a pair of tweezers. It indicates that sellers are weakening and buyers are gaining strength.
To identify these patterns, traders can use tools provided by trading platforms. For example, on Thinkorswim, traders can select the "Candlestick" tab to view a list of available candlestick patterns, both pre-defined and user-defined. Traders can then double-click on a desired pattern to add it to their list and customise its calculation methods and appearance.
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Identify bullish and bearish trends
Candlestick patterns are a popular tool for technical analysis in trading, helping to predict future price movements. They are used to identify bullish and bearish trends and can be a powerful indicator when used correctly. Here are some ways to identify these trends through rejection candle patterns:
Bullish Trends
- Dragonfly Doji: This pattern is generally formed at the bottom of the price chart and indicates a potential bullish trend reversal. It is characterised by a long lower wick and a small or non-existent upper wick, suggesting a shift from bearish to bullish sentiment.
- Hammer and Inverted Hammer: These candlestick patterns are opposites but indicate bullish reversals. The hammer has a long wick and a small upper body, while the inverted hammer has a long upper wick and a small lower body. The long wick shows the rejection of a key level, indicating that sellers cannot move prices lower.
- Piercing Line: This pattern is formed by two candlesticks, the first being bearish and the second bullish. The bullish candle opens lower than the close of the preceding candle and then closes above its midpoint.
- Rising Three Methods: This pattern is made up of three short red candles within the range of two long green candles, showing that buyers are retaining control of the market despite some selling pressure.
- Three White Soldiers: This pattern consists of three consecutive bullish candles, indicating that buyers have entered the market with significant buying pressure.
Bearish Trends
- Gravestone Doji: This pattern is typically formed at the top of the price chart and signals a potential bearish trend reversal. It has a long upper wick and no lower wick, suggesting a shift from bullish to bearish sentiment.
- Bearish Engulfing: This pattern occurs at the end of an uptrend and signifies a slowdown or peak in price movement. It consists of a small green candle engulfed by a long red candle, indicating an impending market downturn.
- Falling Three Methods: This pattern includes a long red body, followed by three small green bodies, and another red body, showing that buyers lack the strength to reverse the trend.
- Shooting Star: This is a single candlestick pattern with a long wick at the top and a small or non-existent body, predicting a bearish reversal.
- Exhaustion Gap: This pattern occurs when the price gaps higher, creating the illusion of a continued uptrend. However, the trend then reverses, and a large red candle indicates a clear change in sentiment.
These patterns can be used to identify potential shifts in market sentiment and make informed trading decisions. It is important to note that while these patterns provide valuable insights, they do not guarantee the direction of price movements.
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Frequently asked questions
Rejection candles, also known as rejection blocks, occur when there is a strong price rejection at a specific level, indicating a temporary shift in market sentiment. This can be identified by long wicks at the top or bottom of a swing, preferably with cleared liquidity.
To identify a rejection candle, look for long wicks on candlesticks, preferably at the bottom of a swing low. The larger the wick, the stronger the rejection. You can also look for patterns such as the pin bar, which has big upper and lower wicks, or the head and shoulders pattern.
There are several strategies for trading rejection candles. One approach is to wait for confirmation of a reversal, such as a change in market structure or candlestick patterns like the engulfing bar. Another strategy is to use a candlestick rejection strategy, which involves entering trades during counter-trend moves to capture spots where market prices are at rest before rejoining the dominant trend.
Trading rejection candles can be risky if entered too early. It is important to wait for confirmation of a reversal to avoid trading every wick at every swing point, which can be unprofitable. Additionally, it is crucial to manage your risk by placing stop losses at appropriate levels relative to the rejection block and the direction of the trade.











































