Most Commonly
Traded Chart Patterns

Head and Shoulders/Inverted

Head and Shoulders Head and Shoulders appears as a baseline with three peaks, the outside two are close in height and the middle is highest. It predicts a bullish-to-bearish trend reversal.

The opposite of head and shoulders pattern is known as an inverse head and shoulders pattern, which predicts a bearish-to-bullish trend reversal.

Rising Wedges and Falling Wedges

A wedge is a price pattern marked by converging trend lines on a price chart. The two trend lines are drawn to connect the respective highs and lows of a price series over certain periods.

In a rising wedge, the price has been rising over time. Both the support and resistance line are pointing up and they are converging.

For falling wedge, the price has been falling over time. Both the support and resistance line are pointing down and still they are converging.

In most cases, wedges are reversal chart patterns. Traders look for a bearish reversal in a rising wedge and a bullish reversal in a falling wedge.

Triangles

A triangle is a chart pattern, depicted by drawing trendlines along a converging price range that connotes a pause in the prevailing trend. Technical analysts tend to categorize triangles as trend continuation patterns. There are three types of triangles: ascending triangle, descending triangle and symmetrical triangle.

An ascending triangle is a breakout that forms when the price breaches the upper horizontal trendline with rising volume. The upper trendline, acting as the resistance level, must be horizontal; the lower trendline, being the support level, is rising diagonally.

A descending triangle is an inverted version of the ascending triangle and hence considered as a breakdown pattern. The lower support trendline is horizontal while the upper resistance trendline declines diagonally.

A symmetrical triangle is composed of a diagonally falling upper resistance trendline and a diagonally rising lower support trendline. As the price reaches towards the apex, there usually will be either a breakout or breakdown.