The shooting star candle is a reversal pattern of an upwards price move.

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How to Trade Using the Shooting Star Candlestick If a stock is in a bullish uptrend and you identify a shooting star candle, then there is a solid chance that the trend will reverse.
For this reason, traders use this candle to enter short trades on the assumption that the bullish move is running out of steam.

How to Trade Using the Shooting Star Candlestick

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16 August 2016 , Al Hill

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shooting star candlestick potential

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star%2F) star/&via=Tradingsim) star%2F) star%2F) star%2F&title=How+to+Trade+Using+the+Sho Once you are able to identify the shooting star, you should look to open a short position on a break of the low of the candle.

What is the Shooting Star Candle? The expectation for the profit potential for the shooting star is 3:1 the size of the candlestick.

Reliability of the Shooting Star Candlestick

T he 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. The shooting star candlestick is considered one of the most reliable candlestick patterns. One of the reasons for this is the
unique structure – a small body with a high upper candlewick.
The shooting star has a small body and a very long upper candle wick.
The psychology of the trade has many layers of complexity.

First, buyers are enjoying their gains as the stock shoots to a short-term high. As this euphoric moment begins to set in, short
traders begin to sell the stock on a flurry of buy orders.

At this point, the longs who were late to the party begin to get scary and start to sell out as well. This panic long selling and
short selling leads to a sharp reversal in the price action, thus generating a small candlestick body on the chart.

It is important to mention that the shooting star candlestick pattern is even more reliable when it develops after three
consecutive bullish candles.

This creates exponential bullish pressure on the chart. In such cases, the shooting star candle is likely to have an even bigger
upper candlewick. This implies that the price is about to reverse with even bigger strength.

shooting star candlestick

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As you see, the candle has a small body located in the lower part of the pattern.

However, this also looks like an inverted hammer candle pattern. So, how can we distinguish the two? The answer to this Learn About TradingSim (https://tradingsim.com)
question is hidden in the price direction before the creation of the candle.

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1) Trade Entry Our maximum loss will be equal to the distance between the level we short HPQ and the level of the stop loss order.

To enter a shooting star trade, you should first confirm the pattern. The first blue arrow on the image measures the size of the candlestick. According to our shooting star trading strategy, we
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should seek a target equal to three (https://tradingsim.com/)
times the size of the pattern.
To do so, you will first need to identify an active bullish trend. Then you need to spot a candle with a small body and a big
upper candlewick. When you identify a shooting star candle during a bullish trend, you will need to wait for another signal. You Thus, we apply the size of the pattern three times starting from the lower candle wick. This is how we get the big blue arrow,
will also need a bearish candle to break the low point of the shooting star body. This will confirm the validity of your shooting which points out the minimum target of our trading strategy.
star on the chart.

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If you are able to identify the presence of these signals, then you should short the security. After all, you are anticipating an
upcoming bearish price move.
Now we need to stay in the trade until the price action closes a candle beyond the minimum target.

2) Stop Loss The price reverses after we short Hewlett-Packard. On the way down, the price creates one correction during the bearish
move. The downward activity then resumes and 18 periods after we short HPQ, the price action closes a candle below the
You should always use a stop loss order when trading the shooting star candle pattern. After all, nothing is 100% in stock minimum target of the pattern. Luckily, this candle is relatively big and goes way beyond the minimum target.
trading and you will definitely experience false signals when trading the shooting star pattern.
As you see, the shooting star candle pattern gives us an indication that the trend might reverse. This creates a nice premise
You should place the shooting star candle pattern above the upper wick of the pattern. to short HP right in the beginning of an emerging bearish trend. Despite the correction on the way down, the shooting star
reaches the target of three times the size of the candlestick.
3) Taking Profits
Let’s now try this strategy one more time on another shooting star trading example:
The price target for the shooting star is equal to the size of the pattern.

Therefore, we place a stop loss to contain a price loss equal to the size of the pattern. At the same time, our target is for a
price move equal to three times the shooting star.

Shooting Star Trading Strategy

Now that we have the shooting star rules in front of us, we will combine these three basic steps into a trading strategy.
shooting star trading strategy 2

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We now have the 1-minute chart of Apple from December 22, 2015.

The chart starts with a price increase – Apple creates higher highs and higher lows. On the way up, the price action completes
a shooting star candlestick pattern on the chart. You can see the figure in the green circle on the image. Now we have a
reason to believe that the price action could be reversed. We wait to see if the next candle is going to confirm the authenticity
of the shooting star reversal pattern.

Fortunately, the next candle is bearish and breaks the low of our shooting star candle on the chart. This gives us a strong
bearish signal and we short Apple at the end of the bearish candle. At the same time, we place a stop loss order at the
shooting star trading strategy
highest point of the shooting star – above the upper candlewick.

This is the 2-minute chart of Hewlett-Packard from June 10, 2016. The image illustrates a classical shooting star trading Now, the trade is protected against rapid price moves contrary to our trade.
example.
The blue arrows on the image measure and apply three times the size of the shooting star candle pattern. After we short
Our trading analysis starts with identifying that the price is trending upwards. Apple, the price enters a downtrend.

Suddenly, a shooting star candlestick appears, which is marked with the green circle on the chart. We have a small candle After the first bearish impulse on the chart, the price creates a range between $107.30 and $107.40 per share. The range is
body and a big upper candlewick, which confirms the shape of the pattern. then broken and the price action creates a new bearish impulse on the chart. This impulse leads the price to complete a total
bearish move of three times the size of the shooting star pattern. This is the minimum target for our trade and we close the
The next candle after the shooting star is bearish and it confirms the pattern.
position.

Therefore, we sell the security after the pattern confirmation. At the same time, we place a stop loss order above the upper
This is another short deal caused by the shooting star trading candle. As you see, the minimum target of the pattern is
wick of the shooting star candle in order to secure our short trade.
completed after a short hesitation by Apple.

Now, if the price creates an unexpected bullish move caused by high volatility, we will be protected.
Conclusion
The shooting star is a single candlestick pattern used in trading.

This is among the most popular bearish candlestick patterns.

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The shooting star falls into the “Hammer” candle family.

The identical twin of the shooting star candlestick pattern is the inverted hammer.

The shooting star candle pattern has a strong bearish potential on the chart. Thus, traders use the shooting star to set short entry points on the

chart.

One of the most reliable single candle patterns is the shooting star because:

It has unique structure – small body with long upper candlewick

There is a strong psychology factor behind the shooting star – exponentially growing bullish pressure, which quickly frazzles and ends up
sending the price down.

There are three basic tricks for trading the shooting star candlestick figure:

Sell the security after the creation of a bullish trend, a shooting star candle, and a bearish confirmation candle.

Put a stop loss right above the upper candlewick of the shooting star figure.

Stay in the short trade for a bearish price move equal to at least three times the size of the shooting star candle including the upper and the
lower candlewick.

This shooting star trading strategy contains around 3:1 Win-Loss ratio.

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