Candlestick patternsBelt Hold
A single long candle that opens at its extreme and runs the other way — a reversal cue.
Works best in trending marketsEngine-computed on a fixed sample series
What it is
The belt hold is a single-candle reversal pattern that signals one side of the market seized control instantly at the open and drove price the other way all session. A bullish belt hold, sometimes called a yang or white belt hold, opens at or very near the session low with no lower shadow and rallies to close near the high. A bearish belt hold, the yin or black version, opens at or near the high with no upper shadow and sells off to close near the low. In effect it is a marubozu — a wickless candle — on its opening end, appearing against the prevailing trend. It answers whether the market opened and immediately committed to a reversal without hesitation. Its Japanese name, yorikiri, borrows from a sumo term for pushing an opponent out of the ring in one motion.
How it forms
Only one candle forms the pattern, which is part of why it is considered a relatively weak signal that needs confirmation. For a bullish belt hold, the candle opens at its low, meaning there is no lower wick, then trends upward the entire session to close near, though not necessarily exactly at, the high. For a bearish belt hold, the candle opens at its high with no upper wick and falls throughout the session to close near the low. The defining features are the wickless opening end and the long body running counter to the existing trend, so a bullish belt hold appears within a downtrend and a bearish one within an uptrend. The longer the body and the closer the close sits to the far extreme, the more significant the signal. If a small wick exists on the opening side, purists would call it a lesser signal or a different candle entirely.
Reading it step by step
First place the candle in the context of the prevailing trend, since a belt hold only reverses meaning against a trend. For a bearish belt hold in an uptrend, the wickless open at the high tells you sellers took control from the very first tick, never allowing price to trade higher, which is a sharp change from the buying that preceded it. The long body down through the session shows that control was maintained, not just seized momentarily. The absence of an opening wick is the key tell: one side dominated instantly and did not look back. A bullish belt hold in a downtrend reads as the mirror image, with buyers commanding the session from the low. Because it is only one candle, however, the message is a strong hint of a turn rather than proof, and the following candle should confirm that the new direction holds.
Best timeframes and context
The belt hold works across timeframes but, like most single-candle signals, is more trustworthy on daily and higher charts where a full session of one-sided control carries real weight. On very low intraday frames, long wickless candles appear frequently and mean little. The strongest context is a clear, established trend where the belt hold forms against it at a logical reversal zone such as support for a bullish belt hold or resistance for a bearish one. A high-quality instance has a long body, a genuinely wickless opening end, and a close near the opposite extreme, ideally on elevated volume. Because it is a single candle rather than a multi-bar structure, location and confirmation matter even more than usual. A long candle floating in the middle of a range is not a belt hold worth trading.
When and where to use it
Use it as an early reversal cue in trending markets, particularly when the wickless candle forms against the trend at a level where a turn is plausible. It applies to all asset classes because it needs no gap, only a candle that opens at its own extreme. Avoid trading it inside a range, where directionless long candles are common and the reversal logic does not apply. Because it is one of the weaker reversal patterns, treat it as a reason to pay attention and prepare rather than an immediate, standalone trigger. It is most useful when combined with a support or resistance level that gives the reversal somewhere logical to occur. Skip it when the opening end has a meaningful wick, since that undermines the whole premise of instant, uncontested control.
Strategies that use it
The disciplined approach is to trade in the belt hold's direction only after the next candle confirms — for a bullish belt hold, a follow-up candle that closes above the belt hold's high — using the wickless open as the natural stop level. The clean open gives an unusually tight and logical place to anchor risk, since a return through it means one-sided control has failed. A second strategy uses the belt hold to time entries within an existing counter-trend plan: if you already expect a bottom at support, a bullish belt hold there is your trigger to act. A third, defensive use applies it to exits, closing a position when a strong belt hold forms against it. In all cases the wickless extreme frames the invalidation level, and confirmation is what separates a disciplined belt-hold trade from a guess on a single bar.
Combining it with other indicators
Given its single-candle weakness, the belt hold gains the most from confluence. A location at a well-tested support or resistance level, a Fibonacci retracement, or a Bollinger Band edge gives the reversal structure. An oscillator reading such as RSI at oversold for a bullish belt hold, or a divergence, tells you the trend was already stretched. Elevated volume on the belt-hold candle confirms that the one-sided session reflected real participation rather than a thin drift. A moving average that price is testing, or a trendline the candle bounces from, offers an independent reason for the turn. Because the pattern is comparatively weak, requiring two or three of these confirmations before acting is the difference between a reliable signal and a coin flip.
Where it fails
The chief weakness is that a single candle is thin evidence, so belt holds fail often when traded alone without confirmation or a supporting level. In a strong trend, a counter-trend belt hold is frequently overrun within a day or two as the dominant side reasserts itself. Traders also mislabel long candles that have a small opening wick as belt holds, then expect more than the imperfect shape can deliver. Trading one inside a range, where the reversal logic does not apply, is another common error. Setting a stop too tight, inside the candle rather than beyond the wickless open, invites being shaken out on a normal retest. The remedy is to require the right trend context, a logical level, ideally supporting momentum or volume, and always a confirming candle before committing.
A worked example
Suppose a stock has fallen from 48 to near 40 and, at a well-defined support shelf around 40.00, prints a bullish belt hold: it opens exactly at 40.00 with no lower shadow, buyers take over immediately, and it closes at 42.80 near its high of 43.00. A trader marks the setup but waits for confirmation. The next session closes at 43.40, above the belt hold's high, confirming buyers have followed through, and the trader goes long near 43.40 with a stop just below the wickless open at 39.80 — risk of about 3.60 points. Targeting the prior consolidation near 48.00 offers roughly 4.60 points of reward, a reward-to-risk ratio near 1.3 to 1, which improves if the trader trails the stop as price advances. Had price instead closed back below 39.80, the single-candle signal would have been treated as failed and the trade skipped.