Chart pattern · Continuation · Neutral
What is it, in one line
Price oscillates between two roughly parallel support and resistance lines before breaking out.
Neutral · Continuation · verdict: Traditional claim, not yet measured here
Price oscillates between two roughly parallel support and resistance lines before breaking out.
Method
Conventional target: A breakout projects a move equal to the rectangle’s height.
Invalidated by: A close back inside the range after a breakout invalidates that break.
The last two swing highs sit within a tolerance band of each other AND the last two swing lows do too, with the ceiling at least minSepAtr above the floor.
The traditional claim
Read as a continuation, resolving in the direction of the break.
How this detection is wrong
Filed neutral deliberately. A rectangle that 'predicts' the prior trend is the prior trend being measured.
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.
| Parameter | Meaning | Default |
|---|---|---|
| pivotLeft | bars to the left of a swing | 3 |
| pivotRight | bars to the right before a swing is confirmed | 3 |
| lookback | bars searched for the swings | 120 |
| atrPeriod | bars of ATR used to size everything below | 14 |
| flatTol | how level two points must be | 0.02 |
| minSepAtr | separation required between swings, in ATR | 1 |
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.
The last two swing highs sit within a tolerance band of each other AND the last two swing lows do too, with the ceiling at least minSepAtr above the floor.
It is read as neutral. Read as a continuation, resolving in the direction of the break.
Filed neutral deliberately. A rectangle that 'predicts' the prior trend is the prior trend being measured.
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.