Chart Patterns in Plain English: Cups, Flags, Triangles & Double Tops

Chart patterns aren't mysticism — each shape is a recurring crowd-psychology situation drawn in price. Here are the ones our 16 scanners hunt, translated.

Continuation patterns (the trend pauses, then resumes)

• Bull Flag — a sharp rally (the pole), then a few quiet drifting days (the flag). Early buyers book some profit; the stock digests; then demand resumes. The breakout above the flag targets a move about the size of the pole.
• Ascending Triangle — buyers keep paying higher lows while sellers defend one flat ceiling. Pressure builds against the ceiling until it snaps. The flat line is the trigger.
• Pullback to 21-EMA — the simplest continuation: an uptrend dips to its short-term average, where waiting buyers step in.

Reversal patterns (the trend exhausts)

• Double Bottom — price hits a low, bounces, returns to the same low… and holds. Sellers had two chances and failed. The breakout above the middle bounce ("neckline") confirms.
• Double Top — the bearish mirror: two failures at the same high, then the floor gives way.
• Bullish Engulfing — after a decline, one green candle completely swallows the prior red one: a single-day shift from sellers to buyers, meaningful when volume agrees.

The accumulation classic

• Cup & Handle — a long rounded base (patient accumulation), a shallow pullback (the handle — weak hands shaken out), then a breakout above the rim. One of the most-studied bullish structures.

The part that actually makes money

The shape is only half the pattern. The other half is the discipline it defines: every pattern has a level where it's proven wrong (your stop) and a measured objective (your target). Our scanners compute both, with volatility-checked stops and capped targets. Trade the geometry, honor the stop, and let a large sample of decent risk:reward setups — not any single beautiful cup — be your edge.