Heikin-Ashi candles
Heikin-Ashi candles are recomputed OHLC bars that average each candle with the one before it, smoothing out single-session noise so that runs of trend show as unbroken sequences of one colour.
Heikin-Ashi rebuilds each candle from averages instead of raw prints. `ha_close` is the mean of the bar's own open, high, low and close; `ha_open` is the mean of the previous Heikin-Ashi open and close — so every bar inherits half its position from the bar before. `ha_high` and `ha_low` complete the candle. The inheritance is the smoothing: one wild session cannot flip the picture, because the next bar still opens from the averaged past.
The practical effect is that trends render as long runs of one colour with the intervening noise stripped out. A green candle is `ha_close > ha_open`; the scan-worthy event is the colour change, written with offsets: `ha_close > ha_open and ha_close[-1] < ha_open[-1]` is the first green after a red, the earliest signal the smoothing will give. The Heikin-Ashi turns green scan adds a trend and volume condition, because a colour change on a drift is the smoothed version of noise.
The cost of the smoothing is that Heikin-Ashi prices are not real prices. `ha_close` is an average, not anything you could have traded at; gaps are absorbed into the averaging and effectively disappear; and every signal arrives with lag, because each bar carries half the previous one. Use the HA fields to define the condition and the raw OHLC fields for anything involving actual levels — entries, stops, or comparisons against pivots and moving averages.
In Sift
Written as ha_open, ha_high, ha_low, ha_close — smoothed prices; ha_close > ha_open is a green candle. A working scan — The first green Heikin-Ashi candle after a red one:
where ha_close > ha_open and ha_close[-1] < ha_open[-1]1
of the 500 most-traded NSE stocks match today, as of 20 Aug 2026
Scans that use it
Prebuilt scans in the library whose query reads this value — each with a hit-rate replay over the last 250 sessions.
Common questions
How are Heikin-Ashi candles calculated?
Each HA close is the average of the session's own open, high, low and close. Each HA open is the average of the previous HA open and HA close — so every bar starts from the midpoint of the last one. That recursion is what smooths the series: each candle carries half of the one before it.
Are Heikin-Ashi candles better than normal candlesticks?
Different, not better. HA candles make trend runs and their turns far easier to see by averaging out session noise — at the price that no HA value is a real traded price and every signal lags by design. Most users read trend from Heikin-Ashi and execute against ordinary OHLC levels.
What does a Heikin-Ashi colour change mean?
The averaged close has moved to the other side of the averaged open — the smoothed trend has flipped direction, which typically takes more than one contrary session to achieve. The first green after a run of red is the earliest turn signal the smoothing gives; it still benefits from a volume or trend condition alongside.