Shooting Star Practice
A shooting star is a single candle that shows buyers pushing to a new high, then losing it all by the close. At the top of a rally, that long upper wick is a warning. Train to read it in context.
A shooting star has a small real body near the low of the range and a long upper wick at least twice the body, with little or no lower wick. It appears after an advance and signals that buyers were rejected at the highs. It is the bearish counterpart of the hammer.
How to spot it
- ✓ An uptrend or rally precedes the candle.
- ✓ The real body is small and sits in the lower third of the range.
- ✓ The upper wick is at least twice the body height.
- ✓ The lower wick is tiny or absent.
- ✓ Bonus confirmation: the next candle closes below the shooting star’s body.
⚠️ Common mistake
Treating a long-upper-wick candle in the middle of a range as a shooting star. Same shape, wrong place — without a prior rally to reject, the wick means little.
FAQ
How is it different from an inverted hammer?
Same shape, opposite context. A shooting star comes after an uptrend (bearish); an inverted hammer comes after a downtrend (potentially bullish). Location decides the meaning.
Do I short it immediately?
Most traders wait for the next candle to confirm weakness and always use a stop above the wick. This page is for practice and is not financial advice.