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Pattern 5 of 18: all patterns
Classic reversals
  1. Double top and double bottom
  2. Triple top and triple bottom
  3. Head and shoulders
Consolidation breakouts
  1. Ascending triangle
  2. Descending triangle
  3. Symmetrical triangle
  4. Rising wedge and falling wedge
  5. Rectangle
  6. Bull flag and bear flag
  7. Bull pennant and bear pennant
Harmonic patterns
  1. AB=CD
  2. Gartley
  3. Bat
  4. Butterfly
  5. Crab
Smart money concepts
  1. Order block after a break of structure
  2. Liquidity sweep and fair value gap
Session patterns
  1. Opening range breakout
Consolidation breakouts  ·  Pattern 5 of 18

Descending triangle

Breakout, textbook direction downAlso called: Flat bottom triangle

A flat line of lows under a falling line of highs. Buyers defend one price while sellers come in lower each time. The textbook expects a break down.

What it shows

Each rally fails earlier than the one before. The flat floor holds until the buyers there are used up.

How the scanner finds it
  • At least two highs and two lows that touch their lines, with every close inside.
  • The lower line is flat (moves less than 0.6 ATR); the upper line falls by at least 0.6 ATR.
  • Both breaks are armed; a break up is labelled "against the textbook".
12345TargetEntryStop1234
An idealized drawing. The numbers are the alert stages; the shaded boxes are the textbook stop and target.

How the alerts work for this pattern

  1. 1
    Forming

    Four swings fit the two lines.

  2. 2
    Complete

    A fifth swing still fits.

  3. 3
    Close to signaling

    A close comes within a third of an ATR of either line.

  4. 4
    Time to act

    A candle closes beyond a line.

  5. x
    Cancelled

    The lines meet, or one more pattern length passes.

The textbook trade

Trigger
A close beyond either line.
Stop
Beyond the last swing on the other side.
Target
The starting height, projected from the break.

Things to watch

  • A flat floor is an obvious place for stop orders. A short spike below it that closes back inside is not a break.
  • Compare with a rectangle: if the upper line is flat too, the scanner calls it a rectangle.
Where it comes from

Edwards and Magee, Technical Analysis of Stock Trends (1948); Murphy, Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets (1999).

On our charts

Real detections by the scanner on our own price data (2026-08-01 to 2026-10-19), with the alerts it sent. Times are New York time. Some worked and some did not.

US3060-minute chart2026-10-19Descending triangle, broke upNeither in 8 hours
51716.152012.952309.752606.452903.210-15 20:0010-16 04:0010-16 13:0010-18 22:0010-19 06:0010-19 14:0010-19 22:001234T 52804.3E 52064.5S 51815.0145
The alerts it sent
  1. 1Forming2026-10-19 11:00 NY4 swings fit between 51833.9 and 52043.7; watching for a close beyond either line
  2. 4Time to act2026-10-19 12:00 NYclosed through 52021.0: entry 52064.5, stop 51815.0, target 52804.3
  3. 5Result2026-10-19 20:00 NYtime (-0.02R)
US50015-minute chart2026-10-19Descending triangle, broke upHit the stop
7675.67693.17710.67728.17745.710-19 07:3010-19 09:4510-19 12:0010-19 14:1510-19 16:3010-19 19:4510-19 22:001234T 7739.8E 7700.5S 7688.81345
The alerts it sent
  1. 1Forming2026-10-19 16:00 NY4 swings fit between 7688.5 and 7706.7; watching for a close beyond either line
  2. 3Close to signaling2026-10-19 16:00 NYclose to the trigger at 7688.5
  3. 4Time to act2026-10-19 18:15 NYclosed through 7700.4: entry 7700.5, stop 7688.8, target 7739.8
  4. 5Result2026-10-19 20:30 NYstop (-1.00R)

Education, not advice. A pattern describes what many traders watch for; it does not predict what price will do. The textbook stop and target are reference levels, not instructions. Trading involves risk.

Put it to work

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Trading involves risk. This page is education, not advice; examples come from past data.