# Shooting Star A Chart & Candlestick Patterns concept (Candlestick catalog) in the LuxAlgo Library, with 3 indicator implementations. ## What is a Shooting Star? A shooting star is a single-candle bearish reversal signal from the candlestick catalog: after an advance, a candle prints with a small real body near the session's low, a long upper shadow (commonly at least twice the body's height), and little or no lower shadow. The shape records a failed auction higher: buyers extended the rally intrabar, sellers sold the excursion back down, and the close finished near where the candle opened or lower. It belongs to the single-candle rejection family of the Japanese canon that Steve Nison's books carried west, where it plays the bearish counterpart to the [hammer](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/hammer/)'s bullish rejection at lows. Within the broader [candlestick vocabulary](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/candlestick-patterns/) it is the minimal statement of a failed advance: one session that manufactured new highs and could not keep a tick of them. Location is the whole definition. The identical candle appearing after a decline is an [inverted hammer](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/inverted-hammer/), a potential bullish signal, so anatomy alone decides nothing. A shooting star that spikes above a prior swing high before closing back below it carries an extra read: the wick swept resting stops and found no acceptance, kin to a [swing failure pattern](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/swing-failure-pattern/). Grading the candle is grading its rejection. Longer wicks relative to the body and to recent bars mean a bigger failed excursion; a close below the open adds sellers finishing in control; elevated volume says the failure happened with participation rather than in a vacuum; and the maturity of the advance behind it decides whether there is anything to reverse. The same geometry mid-range, or with a modest wick, is one of the most common false positives in candlestick scanning. ## How to identify a shooting star on a chart Every element is checkable; the discipline is refusing the candles that only half qualify. 1. Require an advance into the candle: without a rally behind it, the geometry reads as noise or, after a decline, as an inverted hammer instead. 2. Check the body: small, and positioned near the bottom of the candle's range, either color acceptable. 3. Check the upper shadow: conventionally at least twice the body's height, the longer the more emphatic the rejection. 4. Check the lower shadow: minimal to none, so the close sits near the session's low end. 5. Weight the location: at a tested [resistance level](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/resistance-level/), a measured objective, or above swept equal highs, the candle carries its full meaning. 6. Define the trade points: conventional trigger on a break of the star's low, invalidation above the wick's high. ## How traders use it - As a top-reversal trigger at a location: a shooting star into a tested [resistance level](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/resistance-level/), supply zone, or measured objective is the standard setting; entries commonly trigger on a break of the star's low with the stop above the wick's high. - As an exhaustion tell within confluence: paired with overbought oscillator readings, an upper volatility-band tag, or fading momentum, the long rejection wick argues the advance is being sold into rather than bought. - As a stop-run marker: when the wick pokes above equal highs or a prior swing and closes back inside, the candle doubles as evidence of a liquidity grab, which makes it useful to structure-based traders outside candlestick systems too. - With follow-through demanded: many rule sets act only when the next candle confirms, a close below the star's low or a bearish [engulfing bar](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/engulfing-bar/), converting the one-candle warning into a two-candle sequence. - At second tests: a shooting star printing at the second peak of a developing [double top](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/double-top-bottom/) stacks candle-level rejection on structure-level failure, one of the cleaner confluence reads at highs. ## Shooting Star vs. look-alike candles - **Inverted Hammer** (https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/inverted-hammer/): Anatomically identical; only context differs. After an advance the candle is a bearish shooting star; after a decline it is a potentially bullish inverted hammer that most conventions ask the next candle to confirm. - **Pin Bar** (https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/pin-bar/): The pin bar is the western, range-based cousin: a long tail rejecting one extreme, defined on bars rather than real bodies and used in both directions. A bearish pin at highs and a shooting star often tag the same candle. - **Evening Star** (https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/evening-star/): The evening star is a three-candle top pattern with a small star as its middle act; the shooting star makes its rejection statement in a single candle. ## FAQ ### What is the difference between a shooting star and an inverted hammer? The candle is the same: small body at the bottom of the range, long upper shadow. The difference is where it appears. Printed after a rally, it is a shooting star and reads bearish; printed after a decline, it is an inverted hammer and reads as a tentative bullish signal that most conventions require the next candle to confirm. ### Does the color of a shooting star's body matter? Common readings accept either color, since the long upper shadow is the defining feature. A bearish close is often treated as marginally stronger because sellers finished the session in control, closing below the open as well as far below the wick's high. Either way the candle is a caution flag, not a guarantee that the advance is over. ### Does a shooting star need confirmation? Most disciplined treatments say yes: the candle nominates a top, and a follow-through event, conventionally a close below the star's low, promotes it to a signal. Confirmation costs a bar of entry price and filters the many stars that strong trends simply absorb. Aggressive traders skip it at locations they already trust, accepting more failures for earlier entries. ### How long must the upper wick be? The working convention asks for a shadow at least twice the real body's height, with little tail below. That is a floor, not a target: the pattern's information scales with how much excursion was refused, so a wick that towers over recent bars says more than one that barely qualifies. Wicks measured against the instrument's typical bar range beat fixed multiples for screening. ### Does volume matter on a shooting star? It sharpens the read. Heavy volume on the candle means the failed push and its rejection happened with real participation, the single-bar version of climactic action; a star on thin volume is easier for the trend to ignore. Volume is graded relative to the instrument's recent prints, and its absence downgrades rather than disqualifies the pattern. ### How does a shooting star relate to the evening star? They describe the same failure at different resolutions. The shooting star compresses the whole rejected advance into one candle; the evening star spreads it over three acts, strong close, hesitant star, strong reversal close. A shooting star whose next candle closes deep into the prior body often satisfies evening-star logic retroactively, and multi-timeframe views frequently show one as the other. ## Implementations in the Library - Candlestick Channels (LuxAlgo): https://www.luxalgo.com/library/indicator/candlestick-channels/ - Reversal Candlestick Structure (LuxAlgo): https://www.luxalgo.com/library/indicator/reversal-candlestick-structure/ - Swing Highs/Lows & Candle Patterns (LuxAlgo): https://www.luxalgo.com/library/indicator/swing-highs-lows-candle-patterns/ ## Related concepts - Hammer: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/hammer/ - Bullish/bearish Engulfing: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/bullish-bearish-engulfing/ - Doji: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/doji/ - Gravestone Doji: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/gravestone-doji/ - Dragonfly Doji: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/dragonfly-doji/ - Spinning Top: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/spinning-top/ - Marubozu: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/marubozu/ - Hanging Man: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/hanging-man/ - Inverted Hammer: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/inverted-hammer/ - Harami: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/harami/ --- Source: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/shooting-star/ (LuxAlgo Library, the encyclopedia of trading & technical analysis). Free to use with attribution: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/license/