Takuri Line

A Takuri Line is a single candle that forms after a decline. It has a small body at the top of its range: the thick part between the open and the close. It has little or no upper shadow, the thin line above the body. And it has a long lower shadow, the thin line below the body, at least about three times the body.

That makes it a stricter Hammer. A Hammer needs a lower shadow of at least about two times the body; a takuri needs at least about three. Every Takuri Line is a Hammer, but not every Hammer is a Takuri Line.

Takuri is a Japanese word. Loosely translated, it means trying to gauge the depth of the water by feeling for its bottom. That is the picture: a market probing lower to find where buyers are waiting.

One session, three phases: a drop, a stall, and a recovery.

The recovery is the part that matters. Sellers had the session's low. By the close, almost nothing was left of that drop. That is a rejection of lower prices, for one session. It is not yet a turn.

Bullish by name, after a decline. The candle shows buyers turned back one push lower. It does not show they can push price higher, and the decline is still in place until they do.

The confirmation decides. A later close above the takuri's high, often the next session, confirms it. A close below its low fails it: sellers got past the level buyers defended, and the idea is over.

The same shape after a rally is not a takuri. Up there it is a Hanging Man, a bearish warning, covered in the Hammer guide.

A longer tail sounds like a stronger signal. But the three-times rule compares the tail with the body, not with the market. A big ratio can come from a deep tail. It can also come from a tiny body on a quiet day. So read every long tail twice.

The stock's typical daily range is roughly what Average True Range (ATR) measures. The Candlesticks + ATR guide shows how to read it.

Depth cuts both ways. A deep takuri shows a bigger push turned back, but it also puts the low, and the stop below it, a long way from the close. A shallow takuri keeps the stop close, but it shows less: on a quiet day, a 15-cent tail can be three times a 5-cent body.

Three candles share the takuri's long lower tail. The body and the trend before it tell them apart.

The Hammer is the family name. A takuri is the long-tailed end of it, and it trades the same way: the same confirming close above the high and the same stop below the low. The extra length is measured against the body, so on its own it says nothing about strength. Read the Hammer guide →

The Dragonfly has no body. When the open, high and close sit at or near one price, there is no body to measure the tail against, so the candle is a Dragonfly Doji rather than a takuri. Buyers took back the drop and finished level. Read the Dragonfly Doji guide →

The Hanging Man is the same candle in the wrong place. After a rally, a long lower tail shows sellers could take price well down during the day, even though buyers took it back by the close. That is read as a warning for the rally, so the shape has to come after a decline to be a takuri.

The candle says one push lower was turned back. Context says whether that happened somewhere that matters.

Moving averages. A takuri that ends a pullback, with its tail reaching down to a rising 50-day moving average and its close back above it, reads as the pullback being bought inside a longer uptrend, provided the pullback itself is a real decline of several sessions, with lower highs and lower lows. Under a falling average, it reads as a pause inside a downtrend. Read the Candlesticks + Moving Averages guide →

Support. A tail that stops at a level buyers defended before, such as a prior low, shows the push turned back where traders were already watching. A tail that stops in empty space has no such reason behind it.

Volume. Heavy volume on the takuri means many shares changed hands on the way down and back up, so the rejection had real participation. Read the Candlesticks + Volume guide →

A Takuri Line is a Hammer with a longer tail for its body. The lesson it teaches is that a ratio is not a measurement of the market. A tail three times the body can be a deep push turned back, or a few cents under a body of almost nothing.

Name the candle by its ratio, then weigh it by its range against a normal day. Wait for a close above its high, put the stop below its low, and size the trade from that distance. The depth read works on every long-tailed candle you will see.