A small body at the bottom of a long upper wick, appearing after a rally. Buyers pushed price sharply higher during the session and gave every bit of it back before the close.
The upper wick should be at least twice the real body, with little or nothing below. What you are reading is a failed attempt at higher prices — the day's high was offered into and rejected.
It requires a preceding advance. The identical shape after a decline is an inverted hammer and reads bullish, so the trend filter is not a technicality here; it determines the meaning.
The longer the wick relative to the body, the further buyers pushed before losing the ground, and the more distribution the session implies.
It fails routinely in strong uptrends, where a single day of profit-taking after an extended run looks exactly like a top. Stocks in powerful trends print shooting stars repeatedly on the way up.
Intraday spikes on rumour or a large order filled into a thin morning book create the shape without any real distribution behind it. Turnover well below average on the day is the tell.
Because it is one candle, it carries less weight than the evening star or bearish engulfing. It is best read as a caution to watch the next session rather than as a signal in itself.