Chart patterns
Every pattern here is a shorthand for a supply and demand situation. Learning the shape is the easy half; learning what invalidates it is the half that matters.
- ✓ 22 lessons
- ✓ 88 minutes end to end
- ✓ Free in MarketPro
- ✓ No sign-up to start reading
A chart pattern is shorthand for a supply and demand situation that repeats. A double top is two failed attempts to break the same level: sellers defended it twice and buyers ran out of conviction. Read that way the pattern comes with a measured objective, the height of the formation projected down from the neckline, and an obvious invalidation, a close back above the high. Both are specific enough to argue with, which is what separates a pattern from a shape.
This category covers head and shoulders and its inverse, double and triple tops and bottoms, ascending, descending and symmetrical triangles, flags and pennants, wedges, rectangles and cup and handle. Each is given as a structure, a trigger, a measured move and the conditions in which it is routinely misread.
It follows on from technical analysis and reads well next to indicators, which can show whether momentum and volume support a pattern or quietly contradict it.
The 22 lessons in order
No lesson matches that. to see all 22.
- Head and Shoulders Pattern Three peaks, a neckline, and a measured objective that is a rough guide rather than a promise.
- Inverse Head and Shoulders Pattern Three troughs, a neckline above them, and a bottoming pattern that is noisier than its mirror image.
- Double Top Pattern Two failed attempts at the same level, and one low between them that does all the work.
- Double Bottom Pattern Two tests of the same support area, and the bounce high between them that decides whether anything happened.
- Triple Top and Triple Bottom Patterns Three tests of one level, and the awkward fact that a wider base makes the breakout trade price worse.
- Ascending Triangle Pattern Rising lows pressing into a flat ceiling, and the one classic pattern whose stop is naturally tight.
- Descending Triangle Pattern Falling highs against a level that keeps getting bought, and the order pocket that decides how the break behaves.
- Symmetrical Triangle Pattern Converging swings, a coming expansion, and no information at all about which way it goes.
- Bull Flag Pattern A sharp run, a shallow drift, and the one continuation shape whose stop is close enough to be worth trading.
- Bear Flag Pattern A fast fall, a slow lift against it, and a stop close enough that a small account can actually take the trade.
- Pennant Patterns A sharp thrust, a tight coil, and the point where dealing cost eats more of the trade than the structure is worth.
- Rising and Falling Wedges Two lines sloping the same way, measuring a market working harder for smaller gains.
- Cup and Handle Pattern A four-month base, a shallow pullback that makes it tradeable, and an objective measured in weeks.
- Rounding Tops and Bottoms A slow bowl or a slow dome, visible only once most of it has already happened.
- Rectangle and Trading Range Patterns Two horizontal levels, two incompatible trades, and the break that is always bigger than the swings inside.
- Broadening Formations (Megaphone Pattern) Higher highs and lower lows at the same time, and a stop that grows with every swing.
- Diamond Top and Bottom Patterns Swings that widen and then narrow, and four boundary lines that are four chances to draw your own preference.
- Three Drives Pattern Three pushes, each shorter than the last, and a definition that has to be able to reject charts.
- The Measured Move Pattern Two legs of similar size, and the assumption quietly powering almost every pattern target you have ever used.
- False Breakouts and Fakeouts A break through a level is worth making even when nobody changed their mind, and that is the entire mechanism.
- Volume Confirmation in Chart Patterns The number on a forex volume pane is a proxy, and reading it correctly starts with knowing what it counts.
- Pattern Failure and Risk Management Every pattern comes with a rate of disappointment attached, and the useful question is how to make it affordable.
Guided paths that use these lessons
A path is an ordered run through lessons from several categories, which is how the app sequences them. One path draws on chart patterns.
Take chart patterns with you
All 22 lessons in this category, plus the other 298 in the academy, with a quiz on each one and your place kept. Free on any MarketPro account, in the app or your browser.
Same account as the app · No install · Free to start
Not investment advice. Past performance is not indicative of future results.