When a long lower wick is not a hammer
Body position and prior trend decide the hammer — a long lower wick alone is not enough.
A long lower wick draws the eye. In many notebooks it becomes a hammer by reflex. In our room we ask three quieter questions before the label sticks.
Where does the body sit?
A hammer’s real body sits near the high of the session’s range. If the open and close cluster in the middle of the bar, you are looking at a long-legged pause, not a hammer. Measure: the lower wick should be at least twice the body, and upper wick should be small or absent.
What came before?
Hammers earn attention after a decline. The same shape after a sharp advance is a different conversation — often a hanging-man candidate if other criteria hold. Pattern recognition without the prior swing is decoration.
Has the next session spoken?
Many traders act on the hammer’s close alone. Our drills mark the candle as a candidate, then wait for the following session’s behaviour before the notebook upgrades the mark. Patience is part of the pattern, not a delay of it.
Bring a sheet of bars you once labelled “hammer” to any workshop and re-measure with a pencil. The count of true hammers usually falls. That reduction is the point.