What is a triple top pattern?

It forms after an uptrend. Price rallies to a high, pulls back, rallies to roughly the same high, pulls back again, and fails a third time. The two pullback lows define the neckline: horizontal if they are level, slightly sloped if not. A triple bottom forms after a downtrend, with three lows near the same price and a neckline through the two rally highs.

What to look for:

  • A prior trend to reverse: an advance before a triple top, a decline before a triple bottom.
  • Three tests close to the same price. They rarely match to the cent; if the middle peak is clearly higher, it is a head and shoulders instead.
  • Clear swings between the tests, so the neckline means something.
  • A close beyond the neckline. Before it, there is no pattern.

Triple top confirmation, target and stop

Hypothetical daily chart: a stock peaks at $60.00, $59.90 and $59.80, with pullback lows at $55.20 and $55.00, so the neckline is about $55.00. A candle that dips to $54.80 but closes at $55.40 confirms nothing. A candle that closes at $54.30 does.

The measured move takes the height from the peaks to the neckline, $60.00 − $55.00 = $5.00, and projects it down from the neckline: a guide near $50.00. It is a rough guide, not a forecast; price often stops short or runs past it.

The conservative stop goes above all three peaks, here $60.60: $6.30 of risk from a $54.30 entry against $4.30 of room to the guide, a risk/reward worse than 1:1. Many traders use a tighter stop above the breakdown candle or the neckline retest instead, accept that it is hit more often, and size the trade from that stop with the position size calculator.

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

A hand-drawn candlestick triple top: three peaks near 60 ringed in red, a dashed neckline at 55.00, and a red candle closing below it with a sell triangle and the note close below the neckline confirms. On the right, two equal $5 brackets: the height from the peaks to the neckline, and the same distance below it to a red dashed target at 50.00, labeled target ≈ height, a rough guide. A red dotted stop sits just above the peaks.

Triple bottom: volume and the retest

The triple bottom mirrors everything. Hypothetical: lows near $50.00, a neckline at $55.00 and a close at $55.70; the measured move points to about $60.00, and the stop goes below the three lows or, tighter, below a retest low.

Volume often fades on each successive test, a sign that sellers are running out, and expands on the breakout, as in the drawing below; relative volume is a quick way to check the breakout day. After the break, price sometimes comes back to the old neckline, which may now act as support. That retest is a second entry with a tighter stop, but strong breakouts often never return.

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

A hand-drawn candlestick triple bottom: three lows ringed in green and a dashed neckline across the rally highs. Below, volume bars shrink at each test along a dashed declining line, then a tall green bar marks the close above the neckline, labeled breakout volume; price dips back to the neckline and a buy triangle prints, labeled retest.

Triple top vs double top vs rectangle

The three shapes look alike, and the close decides which one you have:

The double top and double bottom guide covers entries, the retest and failures for the two-test version in detail; the logic carries over here with one more test.

  • Double top: two tests, then a close below the neckline. Before its third test, every triple top looks like a double top that did not break.
  • Triple top: three tests, then the same close. The extra test shows sellers defended the level once more, but the trade still starts only on the close.
  • Rectangle: equal highs and equal lows with no commitment to either side. If price closes above the highs, those three peaks were the top of a rectangle that broke upward.

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

Three hand-drawn panels under the note same highs, the close decides: a double top with two tests and a red break below the neckline, a triple top with three tests and a red break below it, and a range with three equal highs and lows whose last swing closes above the highs in green, labeled range: can break either way.

When triple tops and bottoms fail

The most common failure is the move through the highs: the third peak becomes a breakout instead of a top. If you shorted the third test before confirmation, the stop above the peaks is what keeps that from becoming a large loss. A second failure comes after confirmation: a close below the neckline, then closes back above it. The break did not hold, so exit rather than hope.

Context matters too. A triple top against a strongly rising market, or one drawn from a few minutes of intraday noise, deserves less weight. Mark the peaks and the neckline before price gets there, set TradingView alerts on the neckline, and let the close decide. The chart patterns guide puts these shapes next to the others.