Tweezer tops and bottoms.

Price climbs to 1.10500 and slips back. On the next candle it climbs to almost the same price and fails again. Two candles have tested one level, and sellers pushed price away both times.

That pair of candles is called a tweezer. It marks a price the market rejected twice in a row.

What does a tweezer top or bottom look like?

A tweezer top forms after a rise. Two candles, usually next to each other, reach almost the same high. In the textbook version the first candle is bullish and the second is bearish.

That order tells a short story. Buyers pushed price up to a level, then on the second candle sellers took it back down from the same place.

A tweezer bottom is the mirror image after a fall. Two candles share almost the same low, usually a bearish candle followed by a bullish one. The name comes from the two matching wick tips, which look like the ends of a pair of tweezers.

If bodies and wicks are still new to you, start with how to read a candlestick.

The second candle is often another pattern as well. A tweezer top whose second body covers the first body is also a bearish engulfing pattern.

A tweezer bottom whose second candle has a long lower wick may also be a hammer. When two matching highs sit several candles apart, they are usually read as a small double top instead.

How close do the two highs or lows need to be?

Exact matches are rare when prices are quoted to five decimals. There is no official tolerance, so you have to judge it.

A simple test compares the gap with the size of the candles. A 2 pip gap between candles that are each 40 pips tall is a close match.

The same 2 pip gap between candles 4 pips tall is half a candle, which is no match.

Watch the pip size on yen pairs. On USD/JPY, lows of 149.20 and 149.22 are 0.02 apart, which is 2 pips, because a pip on a JPY pair is 0.01.

Your chart may also differ from someone else's. Brokers build prices from different feeds, and MetaTrader charts normally plot the bid price.

One broker can show matching highs where another shows a gap of 1 or 2 pips. Treat the tweezer level as a narrow zone rather than an exact price.

Why does location matter so much?

On a quiet 5-minute chart, two candles often share a high just because little is happening. A tweezer deserves attention only when it appears somewhere that matters.

Two conditions give it more weight. The first is a clear move into the pattern, since a tweezer top needs a rise to reverse.

The second is a level price has reacted to before, such as support or resistance, a round number or a recent swing high.

Timeframe matters too. A tweezer on a daily chart reflects two full days of trading that stopped at one price. The same shape on a 1-minute chart covers two minutes and can come from very little activity.

How might a trader plan a tweezer top trade?

The prices below are illustrative round numbers on a 4-hour chart. The plan shows the method only and is no recommendation to trade the pattern.

EUR/USD has risen for several candles toward 1.10500, where it turned lower once before. Then two candles form:

The highs are 0.00002 apart, which is 0.2 pip, so they match. Candle 1 gained 24 pips from open to close, and candle 2 gave back 16 of them, two thirds of the gain.

1. Entry: you sell at 1.10260, the close of the second candle.
2. Stop: you place the stop loss 3 pips above the higher of the two highs, so 1.10500 + 0.00030 = 1.10530.
3. Risk in pips: 1.10530 minus 1.10260 = 0.00270, which is 27 pips.
4. Size: with a $5,000 account and a plan to risk 1%, you can lose $50. In a US dollar account one standard lot of EUR/USD is worth $10 per pip, so $50 ÷ 27 = $1.85 per pip, or 0.185 lot. Lots go in steps of 0.01, so round down to 0.18 lot, worth $1.80 per pip.
5. Money at risk: 27 × $1.80 = $48.60.
6. Target: the last swing low is 1.09720. The distance is 1.10260 minus 1.09720 = 0.00540, or 54 pips, worth 54 × $1.80 = $97.20 if price gets there.

These sums leave out spread and commission. A short position closes with a buy at the ask, while the chart shows the bid, so a stop above a bid-chart high also needs room for the spread.

Some traders wait for confirmation, selling only after a later candle closes below the second candle's low of 1.10230. Say that candle closes at 1.10200, with the stop and target unchanged:

Waiting skips the trades where price never breaks lower. The cost is a worse entry and a smaller reward for the same risk. The lot size calculator repeats step 4 for any pair and account size.

Where do tweezers fail?

In a strong trend, price can pause at a level, print two matching highs and then break straight through. A tweezer shows that a level held for two candles and tells you nothing certain about the third.

Stops tend to gather just beyond the matching highs or lows, because that is where traders acting on the pattern place them. A quick spike through the level can trigger those stops before price turns, so the trade loses even if the reversal comes later.

The evidence is thin as well. There is no strong, widely accepted research showing that tweezers alone predict forex moves after costs.

Treat a tweezer as a reason to study a level more closely, and let your stop and position size decide what a wrong call costs.