What Is Evening Star?
An Evening Star is the bearish mirror of a Morning Star: a long bullish candle, followed by a small-bodied indecision candle (often a doji), followed by a long bearish candle that closes deep into the body of the first. It signals a potential top in an uptrend.
The middle candle represents buyer exhaustion. Despite the bullish setup, neither side made progress. The third candle confirms the shift, with sellers driving a sharp drop. Gap-up on the middle candle and gap-down on the third (the classic 'star' formation) maximizes the pattern's reliability.
Common entry: short on the close of the third candle or a confirming retest. Stop-loss above the high of the middle candle. Like the Morning Star, the Evening Star is among the more reliable candlestick reversal patterns, especially at resistance levels or when paired with RSI bearish divergence.
Related terms
- Morning Star — Three-candle bullish reversal pattern marking a potential bottom.
- Doji Candlestick — A candlestick where open and close are nearly equal — indicates indecision in the market.
- Candlestick Chart — Price chart format where each candle shows open, high, low, and close for a period.
- Support and Resistance — Price levels where buying or selling pressure historically halts price movement.