Shooting Star
A Shooting Star is a single-candle bearish reversal at the top of an uptrend: small body at the low of the range with a long upper wick at least twice the body height, showing sellers rejected higher prices.
What it measures
Small real body in the lower third of the range, upper wick at least 2× the body, minimal lower wick — anatomically identical to an Inverted Hammer. Only the trend context (uptrend) makes it bearish.
Parameters
| Name | Default | Range | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| wick_to_body | 2.0 | 1.5–4.0 | Minimum upper-wick-to-body ratio. |
| require_uptrend | true | true, false | Must print after an uptrend, otherwise the shape is a bullish Inverted Hammer. |
How it behaves
The long upper wick in an uptrend shows buyers ran out of demand at the highs and sellers dumped price back to the open. Confirmation is a red candle the next session that closes below the shooting star's body, ideally with above-average volume.
When it misleads
Shooting stars in strong trends without a resistance level to anchor to often mark a single-day pullback that the trend absorbs immediately. Requires a level (prior high, round number, moving average) plus confirmation to be tradable.
Backtest result
Sourced backtest in preparation — we're running the rule on our own historical candles before publishing numbers we can stand behind.
FAQ
- Same as an Inverted Hammer?
- Same shape, opposite meaning. Shooting Star = after an uptrend (bearish). Inverted Hammer = after a downtrend (bullish).
- Same as a Hanging Man?
- No — a Hanging Man has the wick at the bottom (long lower wick, small body at top). Shooting Star has the wick at the top. Both are bearish in uptrends, different shapes.
- Should I short the shooting star directly?
- Not on the candle itself. Wait for the next candle to close below the star's body — direct entries have a poor edge, but with confirmation at a resistance level the pattern is one of the cleaner bearish single-candle signals.
Build a strategy with Shooting Star
Drop the block into the Nodlow builder and backtest on real historical data.
Try it in the builder