Morning star and evening star
You will learn to
- The three-candle structure
- Doji stars
- Why the third candle is built-in confirmation
The shape
Morning star after a decline: (1) a long red candle — sellers in control; (2) a small candle, the "star" — selling stalls; (3) a strong green candle that closes well into the first red body — buyers take over. The evening star is the mirror at a top.
Variations
- Doji star: the middle candle is a doji — considered stronger.
- The deeper candle 3 closes into candle 1, the better; past the midpoint is the usual minimum.
- The middle candle's colour matters little.
Trading it
Because the third candle is the reversal, the pattern carries its own confirmation. The stop goes beyond the star's extreme (the lowest low of the three for a morning star).
What our backtest found
Morning star on 4H out of sample: +0.36R per trade but on only 92 trades with a confidence range crossing zero — not proven. Evening star: no edge.Advertisement
Check yourself
1. In a morning star, what does the middle candle show?
- Strong selling
- Selling stalling ✓
- A gap up
A small body after a big red one: the sellers' push lost force.
2. Where is the stop for a morning star long?
- Below the lowest low of the three candles ✓
- Below candle 3's open
- At candle 1's open
The star's low is the level buyers defended.
Terms in this lesson
- Morning / evening star
- Three-candle reversal: push, stall, reverse.
Practise it on real charts. In the app, this lesson comes with real examples (reveal what happened next), a graded drill and the track test. Open the Academy in NexusCore — free →