Spearhead, the pin bar indicator MT4 that only speaks at the prices that matter
A long wick is the market changing its mind in public. Price goes somewhere, the other side refuses it, and it comes back so fast that the candle ends up with a tail. Spearhead is a non repainting pin bar indicator MT4 built around one rule: a rejection is worth trading when it happens at a price the market has already been defending, and it is worth nothing in the middle of nowhere.
That single filter turns a chart full of arrows into a chart with three arrows a week that you actually want to take.
Click the image to enlarge
Real chart, gold on M30. The candle stabs up to 4340, the other side throws it back, and it closes at 4328 with a tail that eats most of its own range. That is the arrow. The dotted line marks the price the rejection leaves behind, so the stop goes just above it at 4341. This screenshot was taken minutes after the signal printed, therefore it shows the setup itself and not a finished trade. We read every price off the chart scale, so each figure here rounds against us.
Why a lonely wick means nothing
- Wicks are everywhere. On a fast market half the candles have a tail, so an alert on every one of them is noise, not information.
- The level is the context. The same candle is a gift at the low of the week and a coin flip in the middle of a range.
- Eyes get tired. Scanning six pairs for a clean rejection at a clean price is exactly the kind of job a machine should do.
Therefore Spearhead does not simply detect a shape. It measures the shape, then it measures where the shape landed, and it only prints when both agree.
How the rejection is measured
First the indicator breaks every closed candle into three parts: the body, the tail below and the tail above. A rejection needs a dominant tail on one side, a small body, and a close in the far half of the candle. You can tune all three, so the filter gets as strict or as loose as the market needs.
Then it looks left. It takes the extreme of the recent window and asks a simple question: did this candle land on that price? It measures that tolerance against the average candle of the same window instead of fixed pips, therefore the filter behaves the same on gold as it does on EURUSD.
Because the engine only measures candles that already closed, nothing on the chart can change later. What you see in the history is exactly what you would have seen live, which is the whole point of price action trading.
How to trade the pin bar indicator MT4 signals
- Wait for the arrow. Green under a candle with a long tail below means the market refused to go lower.
- Check the line. The dotted line the indicator leaves behind shows the price the market defended, and it gives you a free reference for later.
- Enter on the close or the retest. Some traders take the close of the candle, others wait for price to come back to the middle of it. Both work, so pick one and stay with it.
- Stop beyond the tip. A few points past the end of the wick. If price goes there, the rejection failed and there is nothing left to defend.
- Target the other side. The opposite extreme of the same window is the natural destination.
If you want more signals, lower the tip ratio or widen the tolerance. However, if you want the rare ones that make the week, do the opposite and be patient.
Markets and timeframes
| Gold | M30, the one we recommend, where the tails mean the most |
| Major forex pairs | M15, H1 and H4 |
| Indices and crypto | H1 and H4, where levels hold for days |
On gold we run it on M30. Below that, half the tails are spread noise, and above it the signals get too rare to trade. Also, a rejection that lands on a level you had already drawn by hand is the strongest version of this signal.
What is inside
- Rejection detection with adjustable tail, body and close position.
- Key level filter that scales with the average candle, so it travels between symbols.
- Dotted line at the price of every signal, which stays on the chart for later.
- Optional dots on rejections that did not land on a level, so you can see what the filter threw away.
- Popup, sound, push and email alerts, each one switchable.
- Premium dark chart theme, applied on attach and restored on remove.
It reads price only, so it runs on any broker and any account. If you would rather have the entries handled for you, look at our trading robots, and the rest of the manual kit lives in our chart tools for traders.
Common questions about the pin bar indicator MT4
Does it repaint? Never. A candle has to close before it can be measured, so an arrow that appeared yesterday is still there today.
Can I turn the level filter off? Yes. One switch and you get every clean rejection, which is useful when you are learning the shape.
Does it work on M1? It runs, but M1 wicks are mostly spread noise. M5 upwards is where the signal starts to mean something.
What about the other platform? This is the MetaTrader 4 build. There is also Spearhead for MT5 with the same engine and the same defaults.
Trading involves risk. Signals are information, not advice, so try any new tool on a demo account first and only trade money you can afford to lose.
