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Home / Technical Analysis / Chart patterns / Descending Triangle

Chart pattern · Continuation · Bearish

Descending Triangle

What is it, in one line

A flat support line with a falling resistance line, compressing toward the bottom.

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

Bearish Continuation Traditional claim
Descending Triangle — 60 closing prices ending on the bar where the Descending 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 Descending Triangle rule, quality 1 · not a schematic

Formation rule

A flat support line with a falling resistance line, compressing toward the bottom.

Method

Target and invalidation

Conventional target: A break below support projects a decline equal to the triangle’s height at its widest point.

Invalidated by: A close back above the falling resistance invalidates the pattern.

What the engine tests

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

Family
Chart formation
Lookback
120 bars
Direction
Bearish
Class
Continuation
Prior context
Downtrend

The traditional claim

Read as a bearish continuation, resolving through the horizontal floor.

How this detection is wrong

As the ascending triangle, inverted.

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 Descending 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 Descending Triangle chart pattern?

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

Is the Descending Triangle bullish or bearish?

It is read as bearish. Read as a bearish continuation, resolving through the horizontal floor.

When is a Descending Triangle not a Descending Triangle?

As the ascending triangle, inverted.

How is a Descending 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

Ascending Triangle

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

Ascending Triangle: A flat ceiling with a rising floor.

All 20 chart patterns →

Other continuation chart patterns

All 20 →
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.
Pennant A sharp move, the pole, followed by a small symmetrical triangle before the move resumes.

Size a trade on this setup before you take it.