The morning star is a three-session sequence after a decline: a long dark real body, a small-bodied star that gaps or at least sits down in the range, and a third session that closes well into the first candle’s body. In the room we draw all three before anyone is allowed to get excited about the star alone.
The middle candle is a pause, not the reversal
People photograph the doji or spinning top in the middle and send it around as if the work is done. The middle candle only says the selling paused. The third candle is the one that has to reclaim ground. Without it you have a pause after a fall, which is common and often resumes downward the following week.
How we mark incomplete stars
On homework, an arrow labelled “morning star?” under a two-candle pause gets a question back: where is session three? If session three exists but closes only a few ticks into the first body, we call it a weak completion and ask for a nearby level. Weak completions that also miss the level are struck through. Completions that reclaim more than half of the first body, at a level the student had already drawn, are left standing.
Evening stars are the mirror after an advance. The same three-session patience applies. We have a classroom joke that anyone who trades the middle candle owes the kettle a refill. It has cut the habit faster than a lecture.