Basic Guidelines: Timeframe – ANY Market – ANY Indicators – NONE OTHER – Trend lines, horizontal lines, support resistance lines (anything to help you find these areas).
Step 1: Find a Pin Bar On Your Chart. *Note This is a stock price action strategy, and a forex price action strategy. I will use a currency pair as an example. Price action charts are with any market and timeframe. First, identify a pin bar that has formed. In the example, this is considered a bearish pin bar because of the long wick above the body. As you can see, the pin bar “wick” is above the body, which is considered a bearish pin bar. In this case, we are looking for a downtrend bounce of the top of the range. This is a 4 hour time chart EURUSD currency pair. You can see the Bears tried their hardest to stop this uptrend from occurring. The Bears were too strong, which is why you see the pin bar form. This is a perfect example of a pin bar price action reversal setup.
Step 2: Look for Past Price Action to Determine Why The Pin Bar Formed. Why did the reversal suddenly hit a price, and then continue to the downside? We can see price has been in a range pattern for quite some time. Note** you can either look at the current time frame you are on, in this case, a 4-hour time period. Or you can bump up or down one or two periods to gather information. Resistance in the past can mean support in the future. What happened is the price hit this level but failed to break through it. Since the long bullish wick formed, we decide it is time to enter this trade based on what we learned from the prior days. This is what Price Action is all about. No two trades are the same. However, we can take what we’ve learned from the past. Then make the best judgment as to where the price is going in the future. You are essentially like a detective when you trade price action. The point is to gather many pieces of evidence to back up your conclusion. You are trading with confluence. Sometimes simple is best. Study the charts and form an educated conclusion as to where the price will go.
Step 3: Trade entry You just enter the trade 2-3 pips from the break of the nose of the pin bar.
Step 4: Stop loss Place the stop loss 3-5 pips away from the wick. The end of the wick will be a support area. So if this is broken the trend may continue downward. Which is why you place your stop 3-5 pips away from this.
Step 5: Exit Strategy Your exit strategy is when you hit the first level of support or resistance on your chart. As you can see, the price hit a point then stalled out. Once we see the price action stalling out, we exit the trade immediately.
Conclusion – Price Action Pin Bar Strategy Price action is another fundamental element to learn when trading the market. There are thousands of strategies you can use with price action. It is important to find something that works for you. These pin bars are hard to miss. They are relatively accurate when you learn why a pin bar formed. Pin bar candles are shown in any time frame. The rule of thumb is, the higher the time frame, the stronger the signals. But that does not mean that this will not work on a five-minute time frame. Do not trade every pin bar you see that forms. Gather up key information from the charts. Then form the best conclusion to determine if you should enter the trade based on the rules.