What Chart Pattern Is This? How to Identify One From a Screenshot

1. Check what came before

Look at the trend leading into the shape. Reversal patterns need a trend to reverse, so a head and shoulders only makes sense after a rise. Continuation patterns, such as flags, need a sharp move before the pause.

If the market has been sideways for a long time, you are probably looking at a range rather than a reversal.

2. Mark the swing highs and lows

Ignore the small bars and mark only the clear turning points. Most patterns become obvious once you can see just the swings. Then ask three questions:

• Are the highs flat, rising or falling?
• Are the lows flat, rising or falling?
• Are the two lines parallel, getting closer, or spreading apart?

3. Match the shape

• Two similar highs: double top. Two similar lows: double bottom.
• Three peaks with the middle one highest: head and shoulders.
• Flat top with rising lows: ascending triangle. Flat bottom with falling highs: descending triangle.
• Both lines sloping the same way and converging: wedge.
• Parallel lines: channel. Flat parallel lines: range or rectangle.
• A sharp move followed by a small drift against it: flag.

4. Find the level that proves it wrong

A name is only half of the read. Every pattern has a line that completes it and a level that cancels it. A double top is only a possible double top until the trough between the peaks breaks, and it is cancelled if price closes above both peaks.

If you cannot point to that level, the pattern is probably not clear enough to be useful.

When it matches nothing

That is normal. Most of a chart is not a textbook pattern, and forcing a name onto messy price is a common beginner mistake. It is fine to say the chart has no clear pattern right now.

Related patterns

• Double Top · Bearish
• Ascending Triangle · Bullish
• Bull Flag · Bullish
• Rising Wedge · Bearish