Belt Hold

Opens at the low, never trades below

By: 42Fibonacci
Updated: 27 Oct 2026
Read time: 7–9 min

A Bullish Belt Hold is one long green candle after a decline that opens at its low and closes near its high; the Bearish form mirrors it. The stop goes just below its low (its open). It is a common candle, so it needs size, a key level and a later close above its high.

At a glance

Type: Single-candle reversal (common)
Variants: Bullish (after a decline) and Bearish (after a rally)
Story: One side took over from the first trade of the day
Key rule: Opens at its low (bullish) with a long body
Confirmation: A later close above its high (below its low, bearish)
Stop: Below its low (at or just under its open)

What Makes a Belt Hold

A Bullish Belt Hold is a single long green candle after a decline that opens at its low and closes near its high. It has no lower shadow (the thin line below a candle's body), or barely one: the first trade of the day was the lowest, or close to it, and price never went back below it.

Steve Nison, who brought candlestick charting to Western traders, gives its Japanese name as yorikiri, the sumo force-out in which a wrestler grips the opponent's belt and drives them out of the ring. The candle pushes in one direction from the opening bell to the close.

The mirror, a Bearish Belt Hold, is a long red candle after a rally that opens at its high and closes near its low. This guide teaches the bullish form first and the bearish one as its mirror.

A bullish belt holdIllustrative

After a decline, one session opens at its low and never trades lower: buyers take it up all day and it closes near its high. The next candle closes above the belt hold's high. The candle's open is also its low, and it is the line that matters: a close below it would undo the session.

The open: Also the low of the day: no lower shadow, or one too small to see. Often below the prior close, so the session starts with the decline still going.
The body: Long, compared with the candles before it. A short candle that opens at its low says much less.
The close: Near the high. A small upper shadow is allowed; traders disagree on how small.

How a Bullish Belt Hold Forms

The open: sellers get one more push

"Another weak open. The decline looks set to go on."

The session often opens at or below the prior close; wherever it opens, that first trade turns out to be the day's low. Traders who expected more selling are right only at the open.

The session: price never returns to the open

"It hasn't traded below the open all morning."

Buyers take over from the first minutes. Every dip stops at or above the opening price, so the open becomes the low of the day.

The close: near the high

"Closed near the top of the day. Who was selling?"

The candle finishes as a long green body with no lower shadow. One side controlled the whole session, from the first trade to the last.

Is a Belt Hold Bullish or Bearish?

Either, depending on which way it points. Opening at the low after a decline is bullish; opening at the high after a rally is bearish. The same candle in the middle of a trend going its way is just a strong day, not a reversal.

The candle alone doesn't settle whether the trend has turned: the confirmation decides. A later close above the bullish belt hold's high confirms it; a close below its low undoes it. The bearish form is the mirror.

Reading the Open

Most candle reading looks at the body and the shadows. A belt hold asks you to look at the open: where the first trade of the day landed, and whether price ever went back there.

An open is the market's first answer to everything that happened overnight. After a decline, an open below the prior close says sellers were still in charge when the day began. If price then never trades below that open, every seller who wanted out at that price was met by a buyer, and more buyers kept coming. The open stops being the start of the decline's next leg and becomes the floor.

Note

That is why the open is the stop. A belt hold's low is at or just under its open. If a later candle closes below it, the price that buyers held all session has given way, and the candle's story is over.

A Common Candle Needs More

Unlike the rare patterns, belt holds are everywhere: a long candle shaved at one end is an ordinary sight. A common candle tells you less on its own, so ask two things before reading much into one.

Is it long for this stock?
Compare the body with the last few weeks of candles. A body clearly taller than most of them is a bigger statement. A candle that is only average in size and happens to open at its low is not a takeover.
Is it at a level that matters?
Does the open sit on a level the chart already showed: the floor of a range, an earlier low, a rising moving average? An open on such a level is buyers defending a price; an open in empty space is just where the day happened to start.

Note

Check for a bigger pattern first. A belt hold can be the second candle of a two-candle pattern, such as a Bullish Engulfing or a Piercing Pattern. When it is, read and trade the bigger pattern; the belt hold is one piece of it.

Tip

An upper shadow is not a flaw. The textbook belt hold closes at its high, but the part that matters is the open: price never went back to it. Don't throw one out because it pulled back a little before the close.

Belt Hold vs. Marubozu and Hammer

Bullish Belt Hold

Long green, no lower shadow; a small upper shadow is fine
Read as a reversal only after a decline

Marubozu

Long body with no shadow at either end
Usually read as strength in the direction it points

Hammer

Small body at the top, long lower shadow
The opposite story: price fell first, then came back

A Marubozu (Japanese for “close-cropped”) has no shadow at either end. Every bullish marubozu therefore also opens at its low, so it meets the belt hold's rule too; after a decline it can be read as a belt hold.

The Hammer is the useful contrast. Both can mark the end of a decline, but they tell opposite stories about the day. In a hammer, sellers drove price far down first and buyers won it back, leaving a long lower shadow. In a belt hold, sellers never got below the open at all.

Bullish vs Bearish Belt Hold

Bullish Belt Hold

After a decline: long green, opens at its low
Invalidated by a close below its low, at or just under its open

Bearish Belt Hold

After a rally: long red, opens at its high
Invalidated by a close above its high, at or just above its open

In the bearish form, buyers get one more push at the open, and price never trades above it again. Everything else in this guide applies upside down.

How to Trade a Belt Hold

Check there was a decline to reverse
A run of lower highs and lower lows into the candle. Without it, a long green candle is just a strong day.
Check the size and the setting
Is the body clearly longer than recent candles? Does the open sit on a level the chart already showed? If it is also part of a two-candle pattern, trade that pattern instead.
Wait for a close above its high
The candle alone doesn't show the decline has turned. A later candle closing above the belt hold's high shows buyers followed through. Watch the next few sessions, as long as price holds above the belt hold's low.
Put the stop below its low
The low is the open: the price buyers held all session. A stop order can trigger intraday, so leave a little room below it, then size the position so a stop-out costs what you planned.

Warning

The long body makes the stop wide. By the time you buy above the belt hold's high, the stop at its low is a whole long candle away. Size for that distance, or pass.

Worked example

A stock has slid for two weeks, with daily bodies of about 60 cents. Yesterday was a small up day: it opened at $31.10 and closed at $31.40. Today it opens at $31.45, never trades lower, and closes at $32.70, near its $32.80 high.

Is this a bullish belt hold, and what would you do next?

The approach

Yes: it opens at its low ($31.45), has no lower shadow, and its $1.25 body is about twice the recent bodies. Yesterday was green, so the pair isn't a two-candle reversal such as a Bullish Engulfing or a Tasuki Line, which both need a red first candle. It is still a single candle, so wait for a later close above $32.80. If that comes, the stop goes a little below $31.45, so the risk from an entry at or above $32.80 is at least $1.35 a share: size for it.

Reading It in Context

Levels. An open that lands on the floor of a sideways range is buyers defending a price they have defended before. Read the Candlesticks + Trading Ranges guide →

Moving averages. A belt hold that opens at a rising 50-day moving average is a pullback ending in an uptrend. Read the Candlesticks + Moving Averages guide →

Size. Average True Range (ATR), a measure of how far a stock usually moves in a day, is the fair way to judge whether the body is really long. Read the Candlesticks + ATR guide →

Common Belt Hold Mistakes

Mistake	Instead
Treating every long green candle as one Big green day after a decline, so it is a belt hold.	A belt hold opens at its low. A long green candle with a visible lower shadow traded well below its open, which is a different story.
Ignoring how common it is A belt hold printed, so the bottom is in.	Belt holds are everyday candles. Without size and a key level, and then a later close above its high, one tells you little.
Missing the bigger pattern It's a belt hold, so I trade the belt hold.	If the candle also wraps the prior body, it is a Bullish Engulfing; if it opens below the prior low and closes past the middle of the prior red body, a Piercing Pattern. Read the pattern, not just the candle.
Putting the stop inside the body Stop halfway down the candle, to keep it tight.	The idea is wrong only if the open gives way. A stop inside the body can be hit by an ordinary pullback while the low still holds.

Key takeaways

A Bullish Belt Hold is one long green candle after a decline that opens at its low and closes near its high; the Bearish form is the mirror
Read the open: price never went back to it, so it is the floor buyers held all day, and the stop
It is a common candle, so it needs size and a key level before it means much
Confirmation is a later close above its high; a close below its low undoes it
The candle alone does not settle the direction; the confirming close does

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a Bullish Belt Hold?

A single long green candle after a decline that opens at its low and closes near its high. It has no lower shadow: the first trade of the day was the lowest (or close to it), and price never went back below it.

What is a Bearish Belt Hold?

The mirror, after a rally: a long red candle that opens at its high and closes near its low, with no upper shadow.

Where does the name come from?

From sumo. Steve Nison gives its Japanese name as yorikiri, the force-out in which a wrestler grips the opponent's belt and drives them out of the ring, the way the candle pushes one way from the open to the close.

How reliable is the belt hold?

The candle alone doesn't settle it, so the confirmation decides. A later close above the bullish belt hold's high confirms it; a close below its low undoes it. It also needs size and a level that matters, because the candle is common.

Can a belt hold have an upper shadow?

A small one, yes. The textbook candle closes at its high, but traders allow a little shadow and disagree on how much. What matters is the open: price never went back to it, or barely.

What is the difference between a belt hold and a marubozu?

A marubozu has no shadow at either end. A belt hold needs no shadow only at its opening end. So every marubozu meets the belt hold's shape rule in its own direction (a green one opens at its low, a red one at its high), but a belt hold can have a small shadow at the close.

How do you confirm a Bullish Belt Hold?

Wait for a later candle to close above the belt hold's high, as long as price holds above its low. Until that close, read it as a decline pausing, not yet turning.

Where does the stop loss go?

A little below the belt hold's low, which is at or just under its open. A close below it means the price buyers held all session has given way.

Why does the size of the candle matter so much?

Because belt holds are common. A candle that opens at its low but is only average in size for the stock says little. A body clearly taller than the recent candles is a bigger statement.

The Bottom Line

The belt hold is a one-candle story about the open. Sellers got the first trade of the day and nothing after it: price left the open and never came back.

Because the candle is common, the story only counts when the candle is big for the stock, sits somewhere that matters, and is followed by a close above its high. Then the open tells you exactly where you are wrong.

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