Forex Trading

Shooting Star Candlestick Pattern Profits from the Heavens

The key is in the context; these patterns gain significance when they appear after a price uptrend. The candle that forms after the shooting star is what confirms the pattern. The second candle closing lower tells buyers to either hold and wait it out or cut their losses. At the same time, we place a stop loss order above the upper wick of the shooting star candle in order to secure our short trade.

Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while probably already know that I don’t recommend trading naked price action patterns. Instead, I prefer to combine them with another trading system that is profitable on its own. Your stop loss should always be placed at the nearest logical area where, if price reaches that area, you know that you are wrong about the trade. In the case of the shooting star pattern, you know you’re wrong if price makes a new high. That’s because taking the entry on the open of the candlestick following the confirmation candlestick is likely to create a poor reward to risk scenario. The solution is to wait for a pullback to the normal entry point (see the image below).

Known for her economic reports and analyses, she covers financial assets, market news, and company evaluations. She has managed finance departments in brokerage firms, supervised master’s theses, and developed professional analysis tools. This strategy allows for capturing initial market moves while still ensuring some level of confirmation before fully committing to the trade.

  • That being said, I trade them on the 15 Minute chart regularly and successfully.
  • When it comes to shooting stars in the financial markets, the direction of the existing trend is crucial in determining if it’s a bullish or bearish signal.
  • The breakout of the lower border of the ascending channel and the retest confirm that the market turned bearish.
  • For beginners, it’s important to use this pattern in conjunction with other technical analysis tools and not in isolation.

Its appearance, especially at the bottom of a downtrend, should be analyzed with caution. In my years of trading and teaching, I emphasize the importance of context when interpreting candlestick patterns. Both the shooting star candlestick pattern and the inverted hammer candlestick have a similar appearance.

Shooting Star Candlestick Pattern vs Evening Star Candlestick Pattern

  • The shooting star has a small body and a very long upper candle wick.
  • Utilizing the Shooting Star pattern effectively in trading requires understanding its implications and acting accordingly.
  • You’ll find that two trading strategies even within the same market could work differently with regards to volatility levels.
  • To improve accuracy, it helps to see heavier selling volume accompanying the candle, highlighting that sellers were genuinely active at the elevated price levels.
  • The existence or not of a wick (shadow) at the bottom doesn’t matter too.
  • The best way to ascertain what works is with backtesting, where you use historical data to gauge the effectiveness of different filters.

The second candlestick is the Star, which is a candlestick with a short real body that gaps away from the real body of the preceding candlestick. The gap between the real bodies of the two candlesticks, and the large size of the first candlestick are the two conditions that makes the second candlestick a Star. The Star can form within the upper shadow of the first candlestick but its real body must not overlap the real body of the previous candlestick. The Shooting Star is a triple candlestick pattern that is similar to the Evening Star in that it is a bearish top reversal pattern that may appear in an uptrend and warns of a possible trend reversal. Thus, the Star in the Shooting Star pattern takes the form of an Inverted Hammer rather than a small Doji or a Spinning Top as in the Evening Star. Umbrella Lines are a group of single candlesticks with a small real body and a long shadow on one side and little or none on the other.

The Shooting Star Candlestick Pattern is one of the most frequently appearing single candlestick patterns which gives a bearish reversal indication. This pattern is preferable to be formed at the top of an uptrend and indicates a potential bearish reversal. The shooting star is a single bearish candlestick pattern that is common in technical analysis. The candle falls into the “hammer” group and is a first cousin of the – hanging man, hammer, and inverted hammer. If you’re unfamiliar with any of these patterns, check out our Quick Reference Guide. Let’s say XYZ Ltd. has been on a strong rally, climbing from ₹850 to ₹1,050 over several sessions.

Advantages of Using the Shooting Star Candle Pattern

During the trading session, the buyers cause the security price to rise, which suggests similar buying pressure as observed in the past few trading sessions. However, as the trading session draws toward an end, the sellers take charge, and the buyers lose control. The shooting star candlestick formation confirms an upcoming reversal in the price movement where the security price will continue to fall. The shooting star candlestick definition goes beyond shape, it’s about market psychology. It suggests a potential bearish reversal, especially when it follows two or three strong bullish candles marked by higher highs. This pattern begins with the price opening and climbing sharply during the session, reflecting continued buying momentum seen in the prior uptrend.

It is characterized by a small real body near the lower end of the candlestick, an upper shadow that is at least twice the size of the body, and little or no lower shadow. There are a few situations where the formation of the shooting star candlestick pattern gives a stronger bearish reversal indication. A bearish reversal pattern is a type of chart pattern in technical analysis that signals a potential shift from a bull market to a bear market. The Shooting Star candlestick pattern is a bearish reversal Japanese candlestick pattern.

You can also combine the shooting star signal with other divergence strategies such as hidden divergence. If you’re extra conservative and patient, you can even wait for divergence to occur on multiple indicators at once, which is a really strong reversal signal. Since the shooting star is a bearish reversal pattern, bearish MACD divergence can help you to further qualify good setups. Once price has moved in your favor a bit, you can move your stop loss to break even. This step is optional, but I do it myself and recommend it – especially when trading reversal patterns. You can use the 50% entry to give yourself improved reward to risk scenarios even if you choose not to use the confirmation close filter.

What moves forex prices?

The major candlestick reversal patterns include the Dark Cloud Cover pattern, the Engulfing pattern, the Morning Star and Evening Star patterns, the Doji, and the Harami pattern. You need the historical performance of any strategy if you are to trade it live with your hard-earned money. If you have no idea if a particular strategy has an expected positive expectancy, why would you trade it? There is no problem finding anecdotal evidence of a successful pattern, and the internet is flooded with it.

Trading 101

Understanding chart patterns like the shooting star is essential for making informed decisions in trading. Remember that while this formation can provide valuable insights, it is more effective in conjunction with other tools for signal confirmation. As a trader, staying informed about market developments and continuously honing your skills could be a key to effective trading in the dynamic trading environment. Open an FXOpen account today to trade in over 600 markets with tight spreads from 0.0 pips. In contrast, the gravestone doji has no or a tiny real body, as the open and close prices are identical or nearly identical, with a long upper shadow and no lower shadow.

The Shooting Star and Evening Star candlestick pattern are both bearish reversal patterns, but they differ in structure and context. In this case, you are trying to trade the reversal of an uptrend using a bearish chart pattern but with a shooting star pattern to refine your entry level. As opposed to the shooting star pattern, the inverted hammer occurs in a price swing low and tends to have a bullish effect. When the trading session closes above its opening price, the body of the shooting star pattern will have a bullish color (green, white, or any bullish color).

How To Trade?

As the market continues in the direction of the uptrend, the market sentiment is bullish. Most people believe that the market is going to continue making new highs, and as such, they’re holding long positions. With the close near the low, it should not take muchfor price to breakout downward (a close below the bottom of the candlestick) and yet it does so only 59% of the time.

You’ll notice that there is also a double bottom pattern found within a triple bottom pattern. The shooting star candlestick formation occurs when the price opens, rises significantly intraday, but then closes near the opening price again. For the candlestick to qualify as a shooting star, the long upper shadow must be at shooting star candlestick least twice the length of the real body.

The shooting star is most effective when it forms after a clear upward price movement. Its appearance near the top of an uptrend signals that buying momentum may be fading and sellers are beginning to step in. Without a meaningful rise beforehand, the pattern loses context and carries much less weight as a potential reversal signal. The Shooting Star candlestick pattern is a valuable tool in technical analysis, but its accuracy isn’t absolute. The pattern’s reliability increases when combined with other technical indicators and analysis methods. From my experience, considering volume, trend strength, and market sentiment alongside the Shooting Star enhances its predictive accuracy.