The school · chart patterns

Chart patterns, explained

A chart pattern is a shape drawn from many swings rather than a few candles: a head and shoulders, a double top, a triangle, a flag. Each has one line that turns a candidate into a completed pattern — the neckline, the confirmation line, the edge of the triangle — and a candle has to close beyond that line before the pattern exists at all. Until then it is only a candidate, and many candidates never complete. The measured-move "target" that books attach to each pattern is a convention, a ruler laid on the chart, not a forecast. A pattern that completes and then fails — a busted pattern — is information too. This page lists every chart pattern the syllabus teaches, the term each lesson defines, and the modules where you practise drawing them on real charts.

What confirms a chart pattern?

A close beyond the pattern's defining line. For a head and shoulders that is the neckline; for a double top, the low between the two peaks; for a triangle, one of its edges. A wick through the line is a touch, not a confirmation.

Can you practise chart patterns without trading?

Yes. In Chart Practice you mark the pattern's lines yourself on a real chart and the tutor checks your drawing against the rule the lesson taught. There is a free double-top exercise you can try without an account.

Module

Head and shoulders

Three peaks, one neckline — and a number that is a ruler, not a forecast The module

Chart pattern: A named arrangement of swing points and levels. Shorthand for describing a chart, built entirely from parts that can be checked without the name.
Candidate pattern: A shape that could complete a pattern but has not yet closed through its defining line. Many candidates never complete, which is why naming one early is a prediction.
Pattern completion: The first close through a pattern's defining line, on the timeframe the pattern was drawn on. The event the name refers to. A wick through the line is not it.
Reversal pattern: A pattern that describes the end of a move — such as a head and shoulders after an advance. Without a prior move to reverse, the name has nothing to describe.
Head and shoulders: Three peaks, the middle one highest, with a neckline through the troughs between them. Structurally, an advance that printed a lower high and then closed through its last pullback lows.
Inverse head and shoulders: Three troughs, the middle one lowest, with a neckline through the peaks between them. The same description as the top, mirrored — completed only by a close above the neckline.
Neckline: The line through the troughs of a head and shoulders top, or the peaks of the inverse. A level like any other: drawn before the break, given width, judged on closes.
Sloped neckline: A neckline whose two anchor points sit at different prices. Normal on real charts — and the reason to draw it before the break, since a line that can tilt can be made to fit any close.
Right shoulder: The last peak of a head and shoulders top: a lower high. A close back above it is the usual line at which a reading of the completed pattern is wrong.
Pattern height: The distance from a pattern's extreme to its defining line — head to neckline, for example. A measurement of the pattern, not of anything after it.
Measured move: The convention of copying a pattern's height beyond the line it broke. A yardstick for describing the move afterwards; not a price the market is expected to reach.
Convention, not forecast: A number that cannot be wrong in either direction — short of it "fell short", past it "overshot" — is a measuring rule, and should be used as one.

Module

Double and triple tops

Peaks that share a band, and the one line that turns them into a pattern The module

Double top: Two swing highs in one band with a swing low between them, completed by a close below that swing low. Before that close, it is two tests of a resistance level.
Double bottom: Two swing lows in one band with a swing high between them, completed by a close above that swing high. The mirror of a double top, with every caution intact.
Triple top: Three swing highs in one band, completed by a close below the troughs between them. A trading range whose floor gave way, described from that close.
Triple bottom: Three swing lows in one band, completed by a close above the peaks between them. A range whose ceiling gave way, described from that close.
Confirmation line: The swing between the peaks of a double or triple top, or between the troughs of a bottom. The level whose close-through completes the pattern.
Middle trough: The pullback low between the two peaks of a double top. It is the last higher low of the advance, which is why a close below it is a break of structure.
Peak tolerance: How far apart two swings can be and still count as "equal", stated before the second one forms. Usually expressed as a fraction of ATR so it scales with the market.
Two peaks, not a pattern: Two swing highs at one price without a close through the swing between them. A level tested twice — very common, and not yet a double top.
Range described afterwards: The honest reading of a triple top or bottom: a range tested several times at one edge, named for the edge that gave way. Had the other edge broken, no peaks would be mentioned.

Module

Triangles and ranges

Converging, flat and widening swings — and the close that ends each one The module

Triangle: A stretch of chart where the swing highs and swing lows converge, so each swing is smaller than the last. A description of contraction, not of direction.
Ascending triangle: Highs stalling at one flat band while the lows beneath them rise. Ends on a close outside either edge; the shape alone does not say which.
Descending triangle: Lows stalling at one flat band while the highs above them fall. The mirror of the ascending triangle, with the same limits on what it says.
Symmetrical triangle: Lower highs and higher lows at the same time. Each sequence cancels the other, leaving a range that narrows until a close leaves it.
Trendline: A straight line through two or more swing points. Two points draw it; a third swing stopping at it — drawn before that swing — is what makes it evidence.
Pattern edge: One of the lines that bounds a triangle, rectangle or similar shape. Drawn through real swings, given width, and judged on closes like any level.
Contraction: Swings and bar ranges getting smaller over a stretch of chart. What every triangle has in common, and a statement about volatility rather than direction.
Apex: The point where a triangle's edges would meet if extended. Where the drawn shape stops being useful — not a deadline by which price must do anything.
Rectangle: Two flat edges with swings bouncing between them: a trading range given a pattern name. It ends on a close outside an edge.
Broadening top: Swings that widen: higher highs and lower lows at once. Neither trend definition applies; the chart records expanding volatility, often after an advance.
Expanding volatility: Each swing travelling further than the last. The opposite of contraction, and what a broadening shape records.
Close outside the shape: The event that ends a triangle, rectangle or broadening shape: a bar closing beyond one of its edges. "Broke out" without that close is not yet a description.

Module

Flags, pennants and wedges

A fast move, a small pause — and what the pause does and does not say The module

Flagpole: A fast, nearly straight move — large bodies, little overlap — measured in points and against ATR; the pole, for short. The part of a flag or pennant that is already over.
Bull flag: A fast rise followed by a small, shallow pause drifting slightly lower. In structural terms, a pullback measured against the move before it.
Bear flag: A fast fall followed by a small, shallow pause drifting slightly higher. The mirror of the bull flag, with the same two candidate completion lines.
Flag depth: How much of the pole the pause gave back, as a fraction. A shallow pause is what separates a flag from an ordinary pullback; the cut-off is a convention chosen in advance.
Pennant: A flag whose edges converge: a small symmetrical triangle right after a fast move. Ends on a close outside it, in whichever direction that close happens.
Flagpole measured move: The convention of copying the pole's length from the end of the pause. A ruler for comparing the next leg with the pole afterwards, not a destination.
Rising wedge: Higher highs and higher lows converging, each push gaining less. An intact uptrend by the sequence definition until a close below its last higher low.
Falling wedge: Lower lows and lower highs converging, each drop smaller. An intact downtrend by the sequence definition until a close above its last lower high.
Shrinking pushes: Each new swing extending less than the one before. A description of how a trend is behaving; the trend itself ends only where the sequence breaks.

Module

Cups, channels and busted patterns

Two slow shapes, one parallel one — and what a pattern records when it fails The module

Cup and handle: A slow, rounded decline and recovery to the same band, then a shallow pullback near the top, completed by a close above the rim. Read from its rims, bottom and handle in numbers.
Rim: The band both sides of a cup reach: a resistance level tested twice. The close above it is what completes the pattern.
Handle: The shallow pullback after the right rim, measured against the cup's depth. Deeper than a stated fraction — often a third — and it is a second decline, not a handle.
Rounding bottom: A gradual shift from falling to rising with no sharp low: the cup without a handle. The hardest pattern here to check, and best read as a change of pace in numbers.
Channel: A trend whose swings are regular enough that two parallel lines fit them. It describes the trend's rhythm; the trend itself still ends at the last higher low or lower high.
Channel width: The distance between a channel's two lines. A measurement of how far recent swings travelled, not a promise about the next one.
Midline: A line drawn halfway between a channel's edges. A drawing convention; nothing on the chart obliges price to react there or to reach the far edge.
Failed completion: A pattern that closed through its defining line and then closed back across it. A warning that the completion did not hold — not yet a bust.
Busted pattern: A completed pattern that then closed through the line named in advance as where its reading is wrong. A fact about the chart, recorded like any other close.
Failure line: The price, named before the completion, at which a pattern's reading stops being true — the right shoulder of a head and shoulders top, for example.
Failure as information: A pattern that can be busted is a claim that could be tested. When it is busted, the test has been run and the answer recorded — which is the point of naming the line.
Redrawing after the fact: Tilting lines, changing timeframe or renaming the pattern after a bust so the reading survives. It changes the question after the answer came in.

More: the full glossary, the chart reading guides, Otus, the AI tutor and the teaching standards.

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