The TradingView pattern library.
Every pattern TradingView's automatic detection knows, plus the harmonic drawing tools — each with a diagram, the measured-move rule, published reliability statistics, and the traps. TradingView's built-in auto-detection scans the most recent 600 bars and covers 15 classic patterns; the indicators live under Indicators → Technicals → Patterns on any Supercharts layout.
Reliability at a glance ↑ top
Success-rate figures below follow Tom Bulkowski's large-sample pattern research (thousands of occurrences, primarily US stocks) as summarised by LiberatedStockTrader's meta-review. Treat them as relative rankings, not guarantees — intraday index/CFD behaviour differs, which is exactly why the data-science card at the bottom shows you how to re-measure them on your own market.
| Pattern | Type | Published success rate | Measured-move rule |
|---|---|---|---|
| Head & Shoulders (top) | Reversal ↓ | ~89% (best-ranked reversal) | Head-to-neckline height projected below the break |
| Inverse Head & Shoulders | Reversal ↑ | ~89% / lowest bullish failure rate (~11%) | Height projected above the neckline break |
| Double Bottom | Reversal ↑ | ~88% | Trough-to-peak height above the confirmation break |
| Triple Bottom | Reversal ↑ | ~87% | Pattern height above the break |
| Descending Triangle (break down) | Continuation/either | ~87% | Widest height projected from the break |
| Double / Triple Top | Reversal ↓ | ~75–80% | Height below the neckline break |
| Rectangles | Continuation | ~80% with trend | Range height from the broken edge |
| Flags / Pennants | Continuation | ~70–80% with trend | Flagpole length re-projected from the break |
| Rising / Falling Wedge | Reversal (usually) | ~70–75% | Retrace to the wedge's origin |
| Symmetrical Triangle | Bilateral | ~54–72% (direction unreliable) | Widest height from the break |
15 auto-detected patterns600 bars scanned50–89% published success range#1 most reliable: H&S family
Reversal patterns ↑ top
Head & Shoulders / Inverse — the benchmark reversal
- Elliott translation: LS–Head is wave 5 with divergence; RS is the B-wave bounce failing under the old high. Same structure, two languages.
- Entry: neckline break close, or (higher R:R) the retest of the neckline from the other side. Target = head height from the break.
- Trap: sloping necklines invite premature entries — require a close beyond the neckline drawn through both armpits, and check volume expands on the break.
Double & Triple Tops / Bottoms — the level that holds twice
- Confirmation matters: the pattern doesn't exist until the neckline (the swing between the touches) breaks — trading the second touch is a range fade, not a pattern trade. Both are valid, but size and target them differently.
- Best filter: divergence on touch 2 (or 3) plus a failed-poke wick beyond the level — the same trapped-trader logic as the range strategy's failed-break entry.
- Intraday note: on US500/GER40 5m, "double tops" at yesterday's high that are actually expanded-flat B-waves will wick above touch 1 before reversing — give the second touch room or wait for the neckline.
Continuation patterns ↑ top
Flags, Pennants & Rectangles — pauses in an impulse
- The one rule that filters most failures: volume must contract during the pause and expand on the break. A "flag" on rising volume is distribution, not rest.
- Elliott translation: flags/pennants are small wave-4s (or ii's); the measured move (pole ≈ pole) is the equality guideline in disguise. If the first pole was already a wave 5, the "flag" is a topping B-wave — check the higher-timeframe count before assuming continuation.
- Where they shine: the momentum-scalp entries of Strategy 6 are 1-minute bull flags by another name; WTI and US100 produce the cleanest ones during their high-energy windows.
Bilateral patterns ↑ top
Triangles & Wedges — coiling energy, direction TBD
- Ascending/descending: the flat side is accumulated orders; the break through it is the tradeable event (~87% for descending-triangle breakdowns in Bulkowski's data). The volume-breakout strategy is the execution template.
- Symmetrical: direction is near coin-flip pre-break — never pre-position. In wave-4 position, expect the break with trend and a final-wave thrust (see EW triangles).
- Wedges: the highest-information bilateral pattern because of the momentum story: five overlapping pushes with stacking divergence. Rising wedge after an extended rally = ending diagonal = expect the entire wedge retraced. Falling wedge into support = its bullish mirror.
Harmonic patterns on TradingView ↑ top
The XABCD family — precision reversal zones by ratio
TradingView ships a dedicated XABCD drawing tool (and the community publishes dozens of auto-scanners) for the harmonic family. All share the same anatomy — an impulse XA, retracement AB, minor BC, and a completing CD leg into the Potential Reversal Zone — differing only in their required ratios.
| Pattern | B point (of XA) | D completes at | Character |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gartley | 61.8% | 78.6% of XA | Shallow, trend-friendly — best in pullbacks within trends |
| Bat | 38.2–50% | 88.6% of XA | Deep retest near the origin; tight stops behind X |
| Butterfly | 78.6% | 127.2–161.8% of XA (beyond X) | Extension reversal — catches blow-off ends |
| Crab | 38.2–61.8% | 161.8% of XA | The deepest extension; violent snap-backs |
| Cypher | 38.2–61.8% | 78.6% of XC | Popular variant measured to XC, not XA |
| Shark | —(uses 0-X-A-B-C) | 88.6–113% of the origin leg | Aggressive; precedes 5-0 patterns |
- Gartley/Bat within trends, Butterfly/Crab at extremes: match the pattern family to the regime, exactly as ADX gates the strategies in Section 3.
- Full trade plans: the site's harmonic combinations C5 (Bat + RSI divergence) and C6 (Gartley + fib cluster) give the checklist, stop and target logic — this table adds the sibling patterns to widen the map.
- Elliott bridge: a Butterfly/Crab D beyond X is usually an expanded-flat B-wave or wave-5 extension completing — harmonics and waves are two grammars describing the same crowd behaviour. When both name the same level, that's real confluence.
Data-science corner — how to read (and re-measure) pattern statistics
Why published success rates mislead
- Selection effect: studies count confirmed patterns (post-breakout). Your live problem includes all the almost-patterns that never confirmed — the denominator is different.
- Market & timeframe drift: most stats come from daily US stock data. 5m index-CFD behaviour (spreads, session opens, news) changes the numbers materially.
- Definition sensitivity: change the pivot threshold that defines "a swing" and half your double tops appear/disappear. Whatever detector you use, freeze its parameters before measuring.
Re-measuring on your market in ~40 lines
# Sketch: double-top detector + outcome measurement over ZigZag pivots # pivots = DataFrame from the ZigZag algo on the Elliott page (time, price, kind) TOL = 0.15 # peaks within 0.15×ATR are "equal" results = [] for i in range(len(pivots) - 3): p1, t, p2, conf = pivots.iloc[i:i+4].itertuples(index=False) if p1.kind == p2.kind == 'H' and t.kind == 'L': if abs(p1.price - p2.price) <= TOL * atr_at(t.time): neck = t.price target = neck - (max(p1.price, p2.price) - neck) # measured move hit = first_touch(after=conf.time, level=target) stop = first_touch(after=conf.time, level=max(p1.price, p2.price)) results.append('win' if hit and (not stop or hit < stop) else 'loss') win_rate = results.count('win') / len(results) # YOUR number, for YOUR market
Run it per instrument and per session window. Typical findings worth knowing in advance: continuation patterns test far better with the prevailing regime (ADX > 25) than the headline rates suggest, and reversal patterns' edge concentrates at higher-timeframe levels — matching everything Section 3 preaches about stacking location with pattern.
Add the built-in pattern indicators (Indicators → search "Chart Pattern"), then create alerts on pattern detection instead of watching for shapes — and treat every alert as a candidate to run through a checklist, never as an entry. Community scripts by LuxAlgo and Trendoscope add configurable auto-detection with historical-marking you can eyeball-audit against this page's diagrams.
Resources ↑ top
- TradingView — Auto Chart Patterns (official help)The 15 supported patterns, how detection works, and customisation options.
- Bulkowski — ThePatternSiteThe reference statistics source: failure rates, average moves and rankings for 36+ patterns, free.
- LiberatedStockTrader — data-proven chart patternsReadable meta-summary of pattern success rates (the ~89% H&S / 88% double-bottom figures above).
- Trendoscope — Auto Chart Patterns (open source)Configurable Pine Script auto-detector; good codebase to study how patterns are defined programmatically.
- LuxAlgo — HOW-TO: automatic pattern detectionWalkthrough of setting up auto-detection indicators and alerts on Supercharts.
- Book: Thomas Bulkowski — Encyclopedia of Chart Patterns (3rd ed.)The statistical bible behind every number on this page.
- Book: Scott Carney — Harmonic Trading, Vol. 1–2Primary source for Gartley/Bat/Crab/Shark ratio definitions used in the XABCD table.