Candlestick formation · Bearish
What is it, in one line
A white candle, then a doji gapping down, then a black candle gapping down again.
Bearish · 3 candles · verdict: rule and thresholds below
A white candle, then a doji gapping down, then a black candle gapping down again. The engine checks the formation as an executable condition over open, high, low and close, with a trend filter applied before the count is kept.
Method
Three candles falling away in steps. A white body, a doji that opens a window BELOW it, and a black candle that opens a second window below the doji. The unusual feature is that the star gaps down after an up candle rather than up, which is why the formation is named for collapsing rather than for a star.
The traditional claim
Read as a strong bearish reversal, on the reading that two windows down in three bars is an abandonment rather than a pullback.
How this detection is wrong
Both windows are required and both are floored on ATR. Requiring only the first turns this into an ordinary doji star with a coincidence attached.
Published so the count can be reproduced. Every figure below is a parameter of the rule, not a preference: change one and the occurrence count changes with it.
| Parameter | Meaning | Default |
|---|---|---|
| trendPeriod | bars of prior trend inspected | 5 |
| atrPeriod | bars of ATR used to size everything below | 14 |
| minGapAtr | gap between bars, at least, in ATR | 0.1 |
| maxDojiPct | body small enough to count as a doji | 0.1 |
| minPriorSlope | prior slope must be above | 0 |
These share enough geometry that a detector can return more than one of them on the same bar. The engine reports every match rather than picking a winner.
What is a Collapsing Doji Star candlestick pattern?
Three candles falling away in steps. A white body, a doji that opens a window BELOW it, and a black candle that opens a second window below the doji. The unusual feature is that the star gaps down after an up candle rather than up, which is why the formation is named for collapsing rather than for a star. The detector also requires a prior uptrend, so the same shape in the wrong context is not counted.
Is the Collapsing Doji Star bullish or bearish?
It is read as bearish. Read as a strong bearish reversal, on the reading that two windows down in three bars is an abandonment rather than a pullback.
When is a Collapsing Doji Star not a Collapsing Doji Star?
Both windows are required and both are floored on ATR. Requiring only the first turns this into an ordinary doji star with a coincidence attached.
How is a Collapsing Doji Star detected?
As an executable rule over open, high, low and close, with 5 named parameters — including bars of prior trend inspected 5, bars of ATR used to size everything below 14, gap between bars, at least, in ATR 0.1 — all published on this page so the count can be reproduced. Strict and loose variants are defined as well, so the sensitivity of the count to those thresholds is visible rather than assumed.
Measurement pending re-run
No hit rate is published here yet. The run that would supply one was computed on engine ca6d9e36c81c; the engine is now cfb08765de7c. Its candlestick rows included the still-forming bar, and it predates the chart formations entirely, so those figures have been withdrawn rather than published with a caveat. The definition above is unaffected: it is what the detector tests, and no re-run changes it.