What is a triangle pattern?

A triangle is a pause in which price swings in a shrinking range. Draw one line across the swing highs and another across the swing lows; when the two lines converge, you have a triangle. Each swing is smaller than the last, a sign that buyers and sellers are reaching a temporary balance.

Triangles are among the classic patterns catalogued in Robert D. Edwards and John Magee’s 1948 book, Technical Analysis of Stock Trends, and they appear on every timeframe. The chart patterns guide lists them with the continuation patterns, but a triangle can also form at the end of a trend.

Apex
The point where the two lines would meet. A break very close to it is generally read as less meaningful.
Height
The vertical distance at the widest part of the triangle, near its start. It sets the measured-move target.
Breakout
A candle that closes outside one of the lines. A wick through the line that closes back inside is not a breakout.
Retest
A return to the broken line after a breakout, where old resistance may now act as support, or old support as resistance.

Ascending, descending and symmetrical triangles: how to tell them apart

The drawing at the top of this page shows the three types. What tells them apart is which line is flat:

  • Ascending triangle: a flat top made by two or more highs at about the same price, with rising lows beneath it. Sellers defend one price while buyers keep stepping in higher. It is commonly described as leaning bullish, but it can break either way.
  • Descending triangle: the mirror image, a flat bottom with falling highs above it. Buyers defend one price while sellers keep pressing lower. It is commonly described as leaning bearish.
  • Symmetrical triangle: lower highs and higher lows converging, with no flat side. It has no lean of its own, which is why the drawing shows two dashed arrows.

How to draw a triangle: at least two touches per side

Two points make a line and a triangle needs two lines, so you need at least two swing highs and two swing lows, alternating: high, low, high, low. A third touch on a side makes the line more convincing, as in the drawing below, where a trendline runs under three higher lows. The same drawing shows how a pattern ends: a candle closes through the line.

On TradingView, draw each side with the Trend Line or Horizontal Line tool, or use the Triangle Pattern tool in the Patterns group of the drawing toolbar, which places four points, A to D, on alternating highs and lows. Its help page advises waiting for a confirmed breakout, since a break can go the unexpected way. The trend lines guide covers clean line drawing.

  • Use real swings you could point to without zooming in, not every small wiggle.
  • Draw both lines the same way, on wicks or on candle bodies, and never tilt them afterwards to fit a breakout.
  • In an ascending triangle each low must be higher than the last; a low at or below the previous one breaks the pattern. The same goes for the highs of a descending triangle.
  • Look for a clear move into the pattern. A “triangle” in the middle of directionless chop is just more chop.
  • Note where the break comes. A common guideline is that the cleanest breaks happen about halfway to three-quarters of the way from the start of the triangle to the apex.

Turn your phone sideways to read the drawing. Tap to close.

A hand-drawn uptrend with a rising trendline under three higher lows, the touches circled 1, 2 and 3, a dashed channel line over the highs, and a final candle that closes below the trendline, labeled break.

Volume: quiet inside the triangle, loud on the break

As commonly described, volume shrinks while a triangle forms, because each swing is smaller and fewer traders commit, then expands when price closes outside. More volume on the breakout candle shows that participation came with the move. It is preferred, not required: some valid breakouts start on ordinary volume, and a big bar alone says nothing about direction.

Hypothetical: a stock averages about 40,000 shares per 15-minute bar. Inside the triangle the bars shrink toward 25,000. The breakout bar trades 120,000 shares, three times the average: a relative volume of 3.0, like the bar tagged in the drawing below. A break on 30,000 shares, below average, deserves more suspicion.

Compare like with like. Volume is usually heaviest just after the open and lighter at midday, so a bar that looks big at lunchtime can be ordinary in the first minutes. The relative volume guide shows how to compare a bar with the same time of day.

Turn your phone sideways to read the drawing. Tap to close.

Hand-drawn candles that drift sideways and then break out, with volume bars below and a dashed average-volume line: most bars sit near the average, and the breakout bar is about three times taller, tagged RVOL 3.0.

Triangle pattern confirmation and the measured-move target

The signal is a candle that closes outside the triangle: above the upper line for a long, below the lower line for a short. A wick that pokes through and closes back inside is not a breakout, and a 5-minute candle is not closed until its five minutes are up. The breakout trading strategy guide compares entry methods.

For the target, the usual convention measures the height at the widest part of the triangle and projects it from the breakout point, as the brackets in the drawing below show. Treat the result as an estimate: price often stalls earlier at a support or resistance level, and sometimes runs past it.

Hypothetical symmetrical triangle on a 15-minute chart: highs at $82.00, $81.20 and $80.60, lows at $78.00, $78.70 and $79.30. The widest height is $82.00 − $78.00 = $4.00. The upper line sits near $80.40 when a candle closes at $80.90 on rising volume. Projecting $4.00 from the breakout point gives a target near $84.40. If yesterday’s high at $83.10 is in the way, many traders take the first profit there.

Turn your phone sideways to read the drawing. Tap to close.

A hand-drawn symmetrical triangle with volume bars below that shrink inside the pattern, labeled volume dries up, then a tall bar as a candle closes above the triangle, labeled breakout on volume, with a buy triangle; a bracket at the widest part, labeled height, is repeated up from the breakout and labeled target.

How to trade a triangle pattern: entry, stop, target and size

Hypothetical ascending triangle on a 15-minute chart: a flat top at $50.00 tested three times, and rising lows at $48.00, $48.80 and $49.40. The widest height is $2.00, so the measured-move target is $50.00 + $2.00 = $52.00. A candle closes at $50.25 on about twice the average volume, and you buy there.

Stop: the classic place is just below the last higher low, at $49.30, because a drop back there means the buyers who held the rising lows have given up. That risks $0.95 a share to make $1.75, about 1:1.8. A tighter stop just back inside the triangle, at $49.75, risks $0.50 for about 1:3.5, but routine retests hit it more often. For a short from a descending triangle, flip it: the stop goes above the last lower high.

Size: risking 1% of a $10,000 account ($100) allows 105 shares with the wide stop ($100 ÷ $0.95) and 200 with the tight one ($100 ÷ $0.50). The position size calculator does the math, and the risk-reward ratio guide explains why the stop comes before the target.

UpTickFlow, our invite-only TradingView indicator, does not detect triangles or any other chart pattern, so weigh this accordingly. It waits for a candle to close at a level, draws an entry, a stop and a target before the trade, scores the setup from 0 to 100 and stays quiet in chop: a second check on a breakout you found yourself, not a scanner.

  1. Mark both lines on completed swings, at least two touches each, before the break.
  2. Check location: a clear move into the pattern, room to the next level, and a higher timeframe that is not against you.
  3. Wait for a candle to close outside the triangle, ideally on rising volume.
  4. Put the stop below the last higher low (or just inside the line), and the target at the measured move or the next level, whichever comes first.
  5. Size from the stop so a loss is small and fixed, and skip the trade if the target pays too little for that stop.

False breakouts, and why a retest helps

A false breakout closes outside the triangle, then closes back inside, and at first it looks exactly like the trade above. Same hypothetical triangle, another day: a candle closes at $50.25 on ordinary volume, the next closes back at $49.85, inside the pattern, and price slides through $49.30. With 105 shares the stop costs $99.75: planned and survivable. Price keeps falling to $48.60, below the rising lows; a trader with no stop would be down about $173.

False breakouts are common, especially on thin volume and short timeframes, and the traders they trap can push price hard the other way. Warning signs:

  • The candle closes barely beyond the line, or the next candle closes back inside.
  • Volume on the break is below average.
  • The break comes right at the apex, after the range has shrunk to almost nothing.
  • A higher-timeframe level sits just beyond the line. See multi-timeframe analysis.

Retest entries, and a filter for daily charts

A retest gives you a second look. After a breakout, price sometimes comes back to the broken line, where old resistance may now act as support; the drawing below shows the idea at the end of a range, and a triangle’s flat top works the same way. Not every breakout retests, and a missed trade costs nothing.

Hypothetical, back to the successful case: after the close at $50.25, price dips to $49.95 but closes above $50.00, then a candle closes back up at $50.35. Buying there with a stop at $49.85, under the retest low, risks $0.50 for $1.65 to the $52.00 target, about 1:3.3. If the retest instead closes back below $50.00 and under the rising lows, it has become the false breakout above, and you stay out.

Traders on daily charts sometimes add a filter, such as a close about 3% beyond the line or three days outside it. A filter removes some false breaks, but it gives a later entry and a wider stop.

Turn your phone sideways to read the drawing. Tap to close.

The end of a hand-drawn range: a candle closes above resistance, price comes back to it, labeled retest (old resistance = new support), and a buy triangle prints; an earlier short at the top of the range is crossed out, with the note a close outside ends the range.

Wedges, pennants and rectangles: the triangle’s cousins

A wedge looks like a triangle in which both lines slope the same way. In a rising wedge both lines climb and converge; it is commonly described as leaning bearish and is confirmed by a close below the lower line. A falling wedge is the mirror: a bullish lean, confirmed by a close above the upper line. There is no standard measuring rule for wedges, so traders aim at the next support or resistance level instead.

  • Pennant: a tiny symmetrical triangle after a sharp, almost vertical move. Its target uses the length of that move, as in the bull flag pattern guide.
  • Rectangle: two flat lines, a range rather than a triangle, with the same confirmation, a close outside.
  • Bollinger Band squeeze: not a pattern you draw, but the same idea of a narrowing range before a bigger move. See Bollinger Bands.