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What is a shooting star candlestick pattern?

A shooting star pattern is found at the top of an uptrend, when the trend is losing its momentum.

The shooting star is actually the hammer candle turned upside down, very much like the inverted hammer pattern. The wick extends higher, instead of lower, while the open, low, and close are all near the same level in the bottom part of the candle.

The difference is that the shooting star occurs at the top of an uptrend. It’s a bearish chart pattern as it helps end the uptrend. The inverted hammer, on the other hand, is a bullish chart pattern that can be found at the bottom of a downtrend and signals that the price is likely to trend upward.

shooting star candlestick pattern

Both the green and red versions are considered to be shooting stars although the bearish (red) candle is more powerful given that its close is located at the mere bottom of the candle. Again similar to a hammer, the shadow, or wick, should be twice as long as the body itself. 

 

In general, the longer the wick the stronger the reversal, since the long wick signals the inability of the bulls to secure a high close. 

 

Some traders prefer to wait and see whether the next candle is a bearish one, which will confirm that the reversal is taking place. 

In both cases, an occurrence of the shooting star at the top of an uptrend only generates a signal of an impending reversal and it shouldn’t be taken as a direct trading signal.

What a shooting star will show us

As outlined earlier, a shooting star is a bearish reversal pattern which signals potential change in the price direction. The uptrend is nearing its end as the momentum is weakening, and the sellers are feeling more confident that they can force a reversal in price action. 

 

For this reason, a shooting star candlestick pattern is a very powerful formation. Its shape gives the pattern a lot of attention as the wick always sticks out from the rest of the price action. 

 

This is especially the case when the wick of a shooting star is also the new short-term high. 

 

Thus, although the buyers were successful in pushing for a new high, they failed to force a close near the session’s high. Their inability is now a chance for the sellers to reverse the price action and erase previous gains. 
 

Therefore, the shooting star’s key strength is its ability to generate a reversal signal. Of course, it may not always be right, but it is considered to be effective and reliable. However, please note that this is still one signal generated by one of hundreds of technical indicators. 


For this reason, it is important to always cross-check the signal that a shooting star generates with other indicators, or other candlestick patterns. For instance, in the vicinity of a shooting star there may be other formations that signal the reversal or indecision.

You can try your hand at spotting the shooting star pattern along with other technical indicators using the Metatrader 5 trading platform.

How to trade the shooting star pattern Trading the shooting star formation is similar to trading a hammer. The focus is on the candle itself of course, especially its wick that extends higher. In the example below, we see a AUD/USD chart that moves in an uptrend.

In the middle of the chart, the price action corrects lower just to get back higher again and quickly. What follows is the fresh high in the context of a long bullish candle. If you look at this candle only, the situation looks very positive for the bulls, as there is an uptrend in action and the new high has just been posted.

AUD/USD trading the shooting star pattern
 

However, the situation quickly changes. The price action moves higher again in the session, fails to create a new high, and reverses to close at the low of the session. As a result, a shooting star candle is formed. 

 

The next candle is a long bearish candle that confirms that a reversal is taking place. Ultimately, the price action retreats 250 pips lower. 

Whenever you decide to trade the reversal that was initiated by a shooting star, the stop loss should always be placed above the candle’s high. This is arguably the greatest strength of this pattern, and as it is with a hammer, it gives you a clear level to play against.
 

Any sustainable move, with a high close, above the candle’s high, invalidates the pattern. Take-profit order is dependent on your trading style and risk management. Our advice is to consult other indicators, like Fibonacci, trend lines, or moving averages, and decide whether to exit a positive trade or not.

 

To demonstrate this, let us move  your attention to a chart below. We have a NZD/USD trading sideways for the most part. In the middle part of the chart, the price action starts to move gradually higher.

 

NZD/USD trading the shooting star pattern
 

At one point, there is a new high in place, above the horizontal resistance. However, the buyers lose control over the price action, which initiates the pullback. A failure at important resistance/support levels is not a normal failure, it is usually much more important. For this reason, the price action rotates back lower following a failure to clear the resistance and returns to support. 

 

The upper red line shows our stop-loss, which is around 20 pips above the session’s high. Any move to these levels where our stopp-loss is means that the pair is in a breakout territory and there is no reversal. 

 

Our profit-taking order (the lower horizontal black line) is a simple trend line that shows where the pair bottomed during the previous attempt to move lower. Hence, we are looking for a pullback to the old support. 

 

In this situation, we are risking 20 pips to earn nearly 90 pips. A simple calculation shows that it is a 1:4.5 risk ratio, an extremely profitable trade. Opportunities as profitable as this one are quite rare in the markets, but this does demonstrate how powerful a shooting star candlestick pattern can be.


Before you start risking your own capital, you may want to consider opening a demo trading account. This way, you will practice with virtual funds and equip yourself with an array of trading patterns and formations to apply when you start trading live.
Summary

A shooting star is a single-candle bearish pattern that generates a signal of an impending reversal. Similar to a hammer pattern, the shooting star has a long shadow that shoots higher, while the open, low, and close are near the bottom of the candle. 

 

It is considered to be one of the most useful candlestick patterns due to its effectiveness and reliability.

 

The long wick extending upside signals the buyers’ inability to follow up on the earlier move higher, which provides the sellers with an opportunity to initiate a change in the price direction.

Any opinions, news, research, analyses, prices or other information contained on this website is provided as general market commentary and does not constitute investment advice. ThinkMarkets will not accept liability for any loss or damage including, without limitation, to any loss of profit which may arise directly or indirectly from use of or reliance on such information.
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