# Hikkake Also known as: fakey. A Chart & Candlestick Patterns concept (Single/multi-bar (western)) in the LuxAlgo Library, with 1 indicator implementation. ## What is a Hikkake? A hikkake is an inside-bar false breakout, described by technician Daniel Chesler in the early 2000s; the name is Japanese for 'trap'. The sequence: an [inside bar](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/inside-bar/) forms, price breaks one side of it, the break fails to follow through, and within a few bars price snaps back through the opposite side of the inside bar. That opposite-side break is the trigger, taken in the direction of the snap-back. Retail price-action traders know the same structure as a 'fakey'. The mechanism is a trap. An inside bar is a contraction, so breakout orders collect on both of its edges; the first break recruits one crowd, and its failure converts those positions into fuel for the move the other way. It is the bar-scale version of a [false breakout](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/false-breakout/) at a level. Chesler introduced the pattern in articles for technical-analysis publications, defining it as pure bar geometry with a built-in expiry: no indicator context, just the inside bar, the false break, and a trigger through the opposite extreme within a few bars. He described bullish and bearish versions and, notably, framed the pattern as serving both reversal and continuation depending on where it forms. The Library's implementations, including MLansky's Fakey pattern script and FxLowe's Inside Bar Breakout Failure, automate exactly this sequence detection. The setup earns its keep at locations where breakout interest is concentrated: range edges, consolidation boundaries within trends, and mapped support or resistance. An inside bar at such a spot loads resting orders on both sides, and the failed first break supplies the trapped positions whose unwinding powers the snap-back. Quality tells include a false break that cannot even close beyond the mother bar, and a trigger bar that expands in range, showing the reversing crowd committing rather than drifting. ## How to identify a hikkake pattern Every element is objective bar geometry, which keeps the checklist short and mechanical. 1. Locate an inside bar, ideally after a directional leg or at a mapped level where breakout orders accumulate on both sides of the contraction. 2. Mark the four reference prices: the mother bar's high and low and the inside bar's high and low; every later decision keys off these. 3. Watch the initial break of the inside bar stall within a bar or two, ideally without a [wide-range bar](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/wide-range-bar/) closing beyond the mother bar. 4. Take the trigger when price comes back through the opposite extreme of the inside bar within roughly three bars of the false break. 5. Grade the setup: a rejection candle such as a [pin bar](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/pin-bar/) at the false break, or alignment with the prevailing trend, upgrades it; a countertrend trigger far from any level downgrades it. 6. Void the pattern if the trigger never fires inside the expiry window, and once entered, invalidate the trade beyond the false break's extreme. ## How traders use it - As an entry trigger: after the initial break stalls, a stop order beyond the opposite extreme of the inside bar catches the snap-back, with invalidation beyond the failed break's extreme. - As a with-trend filter: many traders only take hikkakes that resolve in the direction of the prevailing trend or off a mapped level, treating countertrend triggers as lower quality. - With an expiry: a common convention voids the setup if the opposite-side trigger has not fired within about three bars of the false break. - As a location tool's confirmation layer: a hikkake that fires at prior support or resistance converts a static level into a triggered trade with defined invalidation. - As a screening pattern in automated scans, where its fully mechanical definition, unusual among [candlestick patterns](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/candlestick-patterns/), makes it easy to code, count and backtest by context before any discretionary layer is added. ## Hikkake vs related bar patterns - **Inside Bar** (https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/inside-bar/): The straight inside-bar strategy trades the first breakout of the contraction. The hikkake exists because that first break so often fails: it stands aside, lets the break trap participants, and trades the resolution the other way. - **Pin Bar** (https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/pin-bar/): A pin bar is a single-bar rejection read from one wick. The hikkake is a multi-bar sequence that does not care about candle anatomy; the fakey variant taught in price-action courses is simply a hikkake whose false break happens to print a pin bar. - **Two-bar Reversal** (https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/two-bar-reversal/): Both are trap-and-reverse structures. The two-bar reversal keys off two consecutive directional wide bars swapping control, while the hikkake keys off a contraction whose breakout fails; the hikkake therefore carries a built-in reference frame for stops and expiry. ## FAQ ### Is a hikkake the same as a fakey pattern? They describe the same trap: an inside-bar breakout that fails and reverses. The hikkake, as originally defined, is pure bar geometry (a break of the inside bar, then a trigger through its opposite side). The fakey, as taught in retail price-action material, often adds a rejection candle such as a pin bar at the false break. In practice the two terms are used interchangeably. ### How long is a hikkake setup valid? The common convention is a short window: if price does not come back through the opposite side of the inside bar within roughly three bars of the false break, the setup is considered void. A trigger that fires late has usually lost the trap logic, because the trapped breakout traders have already had time to exit at better prices. ### Is a hikkake bullish or bearish? Either. Direction comes from the snap-back, not the first break: a bearish hikkake breaks above the inside bar first and then triggers below its low, and the bullish version mirrors that. The first break's direction is only the bait; naming conventions follow the trade direction, and Chesler defined both sides symmetrically. ### Where do stops and targets go on a hikkake trade? The standard stop sits just beyond the extreme of the failed first break, since price returning there reopens the question the trap was supposed to settle; conservative traders use the mother bar's far extreme instead. Targets are context work: the mother bar's range projected from the trigger, the next mapped level, or a trailing method once the move exceeds the pattern's own height. ### Does the hikkake work on all timeframes and markets? The geometry appears everywhere bars are drawn, and its logic, breakout orders trapped at a contraction, is market-agnostic. Signal quality still varies: very low timeframes bury it in noise, thin markets produce false breaks with no one meaningfully trapped, and published tests of bar patterns generally find modest, context-dependent edges rather than universal ones. Test it where you intend to trade it. ### Does the inside bar need to be a doji or unusually small? The definition only requires the bar to sit inside its predecessor, but tighter is better: a narrow, [doji](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/doji/)-bodied inside bar represents genuine equilibrium, so its breakout attracts more committed orders and its failure traps them more decisively. A sprawling inside bar barely contained by the mother bar produces sloppier triggers and wider, less useful stops. ## Implementations in the Library - Hikkake (LuxAlgo): https://www.luxalgo.com/library/indicator/hikkake/ ## Related concepts - Two-bar Reversal: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/two-bar-reversal/ - Three-bar Reversal: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/three-bar-reversal/ - Pin Bar: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/pin-bar/ - Inside Bar: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/inside-bar/ - Outside Bar: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/outside-bar/ - Engulfing Bar: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/engulfing-bar/ - Exhaustion Bar: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/exhaustion-bar/ - Classic Bar Setups: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/classic-bar-setups/ - Wide-range Bar: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/wide-range-bar/ --- Source: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/hikkake/ (LuxAlgo Library, the encyclopedia of trading & technical analysis). Free to use with attribution: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/license/