Shooting Star

The Shooting Star is the bearish counterpart to the Hammer. It forms when a session opens, rallies significantly during intraday trading, but then reverses and closes near or below the open, leaving a small body near the low of the range and a long upper shadow. The upper wick is typically at least two to three times the body length, and little or no lower wick is present.

Historically, the Shooting Star was interpreted as a session in which buyers drove prices higher but sellers ultimately rejected the elevated levels and pushed the close back near the open. The long upper shadow documented buyers' failed attempt to sustain higher prices. The small body near the session low was evidence that by the close, sellers had recaptured nearly all of the intraday gains.

The Shooting Star shares its structure with the Inverted Hammer — both have a long upper wick and small lower body — but the critical difference is the context. A Shooting Star appears after an uptrend or at a price high, where the rejection of higher prices is interpreted as a potential topping signal. An Inverted Hammer appears after a downtrend, where the same structure suggests a tentative bid for recovery.

Quality criteria in historical candlestick analysis for the Shooting Star included: a long prior uptrend leading into the session, a long upper wick with minimal or no lower wick, a small body regardless of color, and a gap higher at the open relative to the prior close. High volume on the session was considered supportive of the bearish interpretation, reflecting enthusiastic buying that was ultimately overwhelmed by selling.

The pattern received the most analytical weight historically when it appeared at or near well-defined resistance levels, at round number price points, or at the upper reaches of an extended trend where the prior advance had stretched price well above moving averages or other reference bands.