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Home / Technical Analysis / Chart patterns / Ascending Triangle

Chart pattern · Continuation · Bullish

Ascending Triangle

What is it, in one line

A flat resistance line with a rising support line, compressing toward the top.

Bullish · Continuation · verdict: Traditional claim, not yet measured here

Bullish Continuation Traditional claim
Ascending Triangle — 60 closing prices ending on the bar where the Ascending Triangle confirms, marked with a dot. Confirmation lags the shape: the last swing it needs is only known once the bars that confirm it have printed.
Verified example · fires the Ascending Triangle rule, quality 1 · not a schematic

Formation rule

A flat resistance line with a rising support line, compressing toward the top.

Method

Target and invalidation

Conventional target: A break above resistance projects a rise equal to the triangle’s height at its widest point.

Invalidated by: A close back below the rising support invalidates the pattern.

What the engine tests

The two most recent confirmed swing highs sit within a tolerance band (the flat ceiling) while the two most recent swing lows are rising by at least minSepAtr.

Family
Chart formation
Lookback
120 bars
Direction
Bullish
Class
Continuation
Prior context
Uptrend

The traditional claim

Read as a bullish continuation, resolving through the horizontal ceiling.

How this detection is wrong

The rising-floor floor is load-bearing: two equal highs with flat lows is a rectangle and carries no direction.

The thresholds the detector uses

Published so the count can be reproduced. Every figure below is a parameter of the rule, not a preference: change one and the occurrence count changes with it.

Detection parameters for the Ascending Triangle
ParameterMeaningDefault
pivotLeftbars to the left of a swing3
pivotRightbars to the right before a swing is confirmed3
lookbackbars searched for the swings120
atrPeriodbars of ATR used to size everything below14
flatTolhow level two points must be0.02
minSepAtrseparation required between swings, in ATR1
strict
Tighter thresholds. Fewer detections, each a cleaner example.
flatTol 0.008 · minSepAtr 2 · pivotLeft 4 · pivotRight 4
loose
Wider thresholds. More detections, more marginal ones.
flatTol 0.05 · minSepAtr 0.3 · pivotLeft 2 · pivotRight 2

Easily mistaken for

These share enough geometry that a detector can return more than one of them on the same bar. The engine reports every match rather than picking a winner.

Every pair on the site that can be mistaken for another, and what separates each: the look-alikes index.

Common questions

What is a Ascending Triangle chart pattern?

The two most recent confirmed swing highs sit within a tolerance band (the flat ceiling) while the two most recent swing lows are rising by at least minSepAtr. The detector also requires a prior uptrend, so the same shape in the wrong context is not counted.

Is the Ascending Triangle bullish or bearish?

It is read as bullish. Read as a bullish continuation, resolving through the horizontal ceiling.

When is a Ascending Triangle not a Ascending Triangle?

The rising-floor floor is load-bearing: two equal highs with flat lows is a rectangle and carries no direction.

How is a Ascending Triangle detected?

As an executable rule over open, high, low and close, with 6 named parameters — including bars to the left of a swing 3, bars to the right before a swing is confirmed 3, bars searched for the swings 120 — all published on this page so the count can be reproduced. Strict and loose variants are defined as well, so the sensitivity of the count to those thresholds is visible rather than assumed.

Measurement pending re-run

No hit rate is published here yet. The run that would supply one was computed on engine ca6d9e36c81c; the engine is now cfb08765de7c. Its candlestick rows included the still-forming bar, and it predates the chart formations entirely, so those figures have been withdrawn rather than published with a caveat. The definition above is unaffected: it is what the detector tests, and no re-run changes it.

Same shape, opposite reading

Descending Triangle

The shapes are close, and the prior trend is what decides which one fired: this rule requires a preceding uptrend, its mirror a preceding downtrend.

Descending Triangle: A flat floor with a falling ceiling.

All 20 chart patterns →

Other continuation chart patterns

All 20 →
Descending Triangle A flat support line with a falling resistance line, compressing toward the bottom.
Symmetrical Triangle Converging trendlines, one falling and one rising, with no directional bias until the break.
Bull Flag A sharp advance, the flagpole, followed by a brief, shallow, downward-drifting consolidation.
Bear Flag A sharp decline, the flagpole, followed by a brief, shallow, upward-drifting consolidation.

Size a trade on this setup before you take it.