Crypto wick alerts
A long wick means price spiked and was pushed back before the candle closed: a rejected move. CoinBeacon checks every candle close and notifies you when a wick clears the threshold you set.
Long wicks on candle close
A wick is the thin line above or below a candle’s body: price reached that level and was pushed back before the close. A long wick marks a rejected move. CoinBeacon checks every closed candle on your timeframe and notifies you when a wick clears your threshold.
- Upper or lower. Watch for spikes up that were sold into, dips that were bought back, or either side of the candle.
- Percentile presets. Threshold presets are set from each coin’s own recent wicks on your timeframe, so a preset picks out wicks that are unusual for that market.
- Your timeframe. Run the check on any timeframe from 1-minute to weekly closes.
A close that leaves an upper wick 2.4× its body is the kind of candle the alert looks for, measured on the finished candle on the timeframe you chose.
How a wick becomes an alert
- 01
Measure on close
When a candle closes, CoinBeacon measures the wick (how far price spiked beyond the body) as a percentage of price and checks that it makes up most of the candle's range. A spike that closes back inside the range leaves a long wick.
- 02
Calibrate by percentile
“Long” is relative, so the threshold presets (Notable, Significant, Extreme) are the 90th, 95th and 99th percentile of that coin’s recent wicks on your timeframe. You can also type your own threshold.
- 03
Deliver once
When a closed candle’s wick clears the threshold, one notification goes out by email, Telegram, Discord or JSON webhook. A per-alert cooldown stops a choppy session from notifying you on every candle.
Wick alert builder
Three steps (market, trigger and delivery), and the builder reads your alert back in plain English before you save it.
Wick alerts
Get notified when a candle prints a long wick: a rejected spike or dip.
Set your conditions
Market
Closed candles only
Market view
BTC / USDT · Binance Spot · 1h
- Lower wick
- 0.198%last closed candle
- Share of range
- 51%need ≥ 60%
- Alert at
- ≥ 0.504%of the close
- Wick, % of close
- Upper wick met your rule (replayed)
- Lower wick met your rule (replayed)
- Alert level
- Checked now
The alert checks once a minute on the last closed 1-hour candle. Upper wicks plot above zero, lower below; a bar past the dashed line matches only if its wick is also ≥ 60% of the candle's range. Highlighted candles met both (replayed, not alerts sent).
Last candle closed 18:00 UTC
Charts by TradingView Lightweight Charts™
Trigger
Last closed lower wick 0.198% · 51% of range
BTCUSDT · 1h upper/lower wicks: last 999 candles
median 0.144%p90 0.395%p95 0.503%p99 0.818%max 1.61%
Higher sensitivity = rarer, bigger wicks. Significant (p95) ≈ the biggest ~5% of upper/lower wicks.
Delivery
Fires when a closed candle prints a wick that meets your size + dominance, then waits out the cooldown for this coin.
Disable after first trigger
Optional: added to every notification this alert sends.
Notify me by Email when BTCUSDT on Binance Spot prints a 1h candle with an upper or lower wick ≥ 0.503% of price.
Wick detection: BTCUSDT on Binance ≥ 0.5035% upper/lower wick (1h)
Threshold ≥ 0.5035%
Timeframe 1h
Reads as rejected upside (selling pressure) or rejected downside (buying support)
Just now · via Email
An illustration of the message format, not a live alert.
Your alert keeps watching after you close this page.
Wick must be ≥ 60% of the candle's range · Cooldown: 1 hour.
Market view
BTC / USDT · Binance Spot · 1h
- Lower wick
- 0.198%last closed candle
- Share of range
- 51%need ≥ 60%
- Alert at
- ≥ 0.504%of the close
- Wick, % of close
- Upper wick met your rule (replayed)
- Lower wick met your rule (replayed)
- Alert level
- Checked now
The alert checks once a minute on the last closed 1-hour candle. Upper wicks plot above zero, lower below; a bar past the dashed line matches only if its wick is also ≥ 60% of the candle's range. Highlighted candles met both (replayed, not alerts sent).
Last candle closed 18:00 UTC
Charts by TradingView Lightweight Charts™
The in-app builder with the settings it opens on. The preset figures and the threshold come from the last 999 closed 1-hour candles of BTC/USDT on Binance, and the chart shows the newest 120: a live read, as the app reads it.
How to set a crypto wick alert
- 01Pick the coin and the marketChoose the coin, the quote currency and the venue: Binance spot or futures, or the Bybit, OKX, Gate.io or HTX perpetuals.
- 02Choose the wick sideUpper for spikes that were sold into, lower for dips that were bought back, or either to watch both ends of the candle.
- 03Set the timeframe and the minimum wickPick the candle interval you trade, from 1-minute to weekly, then the minimum wick as a percentage of price: a preset based on the coin's recent wicks, or your own number. Measurement happens once the candle closes, on the finished high, low and body.
- 04Choose the channel and saveEmail, Telegram, Discord, or a JSON webhook into your own system. Leave the alert armed and it keeps watching with a cooldown between notifications (60 minutes by default), or tick “disable after first trigger” to hear about it once.
Common uses
Rejection wicks at support and resistance
A long wick into a level and back out shows the level held on that candle. Watch the upper side under resistance and the lower side over support, and you hear about the test on the close instead of scrolling back to find it. The key-levels detector marks those lines (pivots, Fibonacci, round numbers, the prior ATH) if you'd rather not draw them yourself.
Hammer and shooting-star wicks, caught on the close
A hammer is a long lower wick; a shooting star is a long upper one. A wick alert measures the wick itself, so you are notified without having to name the shape. If you want the named formations instead (engulfing, stars, dojis), candlestick pattern detection covers them.
Long lower wicks when a flush overshoots
Forced selling can overshoot: price drops through several levels, fills, and comes back inside the range before the candle closes, leaving a long lower wick. Watching the lower side on a fast timeframe shows you that candle soon after it closes. Pair it with liquidation alerts to see the forced flow behind the candle.
Wick alerts beside your other candle-close conditions
Wick detection is one of CoinBeacon's indicator alerts, alongside RSI, MACD, Bollinger and the rest, all computed on closed candles. A rejected wick and an overbought reading on the same pair say more together than either does alone. Run them as separate alerts on one coin and let the two messages meet in the same inbox.
Wick detection FAQ
- What is a wick alert in crypto trading?
- A wick alert fires when a candle closes with a long wick: price spiked past the body and came back before the close, which marks a rejected move. On CoinBeacon you pick the coin, the side (upper, lower or either) and the timeframe; the check runs on every candle close.
- What does a long wick on a crypto candle mean?
- It means price traded up to that extreme and was pushed back before the candle closed: a rejected move. An upper wick shows a push higher that sellers absorbed; a lower wick shows a drop that buyers bought straight back. Traders read long wicks as evidence that a level held, though a single wick is a clue rather than a signal on its own.
- How do I set a wick alert on Bitcoin?
- Create a wick alert, pick BTC and the market (Binance spot or futures, or a Bybit, OKX, Gate.io or HTX perpetual), then set the wick side, the timeframe and the minimum wick size. Save it, and the check runs on every close of that candle interval on CoinBeacon's servers, so nothing has to stay open on your screen. The same fields work for any pair on those venues.
- How big does the wick have to be before the alert fires?
- You set the threshold: a minimum wick length as a percentage of price. The builder offers three presets taken from that coin's own recent candles on your timeframe (the 90th, 95th and 99th percentile wick), or you can type your own. By default the wick must also make up at least 60% of the candle's range, so a large candle with a modest wick does not count. Raise the threshold and only the largest rejections reach you; lower it and you will hear about smaller ones too.
- How does CoinBeacon decide a wick is significant?
- Beyond the minimum wick size you set, thresholds are percentile-calibrated against each coin's own recent candles, so a wick has to be genuinely unusual for that market and timeframe to fire. Per-alert cooldowns stop a choppy session from re-pinging you on every candle.
- Which exchanges and timeframes does wick detection cover?
- Wick detection reads the candles of the market you pick, on Binance spot or futures or the Bybit, OKX, Gate.io and HTX perpetuals (the same OHLCV that venue's chart draws), and runs on the candle interval you choose when you create the alert, from 1-minute to weekly. Each alert watches one pair on one timeframe, so you can run the 15-minute and the hourly side by side on the same coin.
- How is a wick alert different from a candlestick pattern alert?
- A wick alert measures one thing: how far price spiked beyond the body on a closed candle. Candlestick pattern detection instead names single and multi-candle formations. Use the wick alert when all you want to know is that a move got rejected.
- Is wick detection included in the free plan?
- Yes. Every CoinBeacon feature is included in the free plan, with 5 active alerts and 10 notifications per day. Wick detection is one of the indicator alerts alongside RSI, volume, EMA, MACD, Supertrend, Bollinger, Stoch RSI, OBV, ADX, VWAP and market cap, and it delivers to email, Telegram, Discord or webhook.
More ways to watch the market
All features →- 01Volume spikes: When trading suddenly jumps
- 02Indicator alerts: RSI, MACD, EMA, Bollinger and more, on closed candles
- 03Funding rate alerts: Thresholds, spikes & cross-exchange spreads
- 04Liquidation alerts: When liquidations spike or a cascade accelerates
- 05Market cap alerts: When a coin's market cap or rank hits your target
- 06Periodic updates: Scheduled price check-ins