Concept
Ascending/descending/symmetrical Triangle
Ascending/descending/symmetrical Triangle, also known as coil, is a Chart & Candlestick Patterns concept. The Library holds 4 implementations, each one a working definition you can pull into Quant.
Top Ascending/descending/symmetrical Triangle indicators
4 total
What is an Ascending/descending/symmetrical Triangle?
Triangles are consolidations bounded by converging lines. The ascending triangle sets a flat ceiling against rising lows: buyers keep stepping up into a fixed offer. The descending triangle mirrors it with a flat floor under falling highs. The symmetrical triangle, the coil, converges from both sides with lower highs and higher lows, recording a market whose rotations are shrinking around an undecided price. Classical readings assign each a lean: ascending up, descending down, symmetrical with the prior trend.
Those leans are tendencies from classical charting literature, not obligations, and any triangle can resolve either way, so the pattern is usually traded on its breakout rather than its promise. Volume conventionally dries up as the coil tightens and expands on the break, and a classical guideline prefers breaks that arrive before the apex, since patterns that drift all the way into the apex tend to lose their tension.
How traders use it
- Breakout trading with a measured objective: enter on a close through the boundary, project the triangle's widest height from the break via the measure rule, and invalidate on a return inside the pattern.
- Bias from the flat side: repeated equal highs under an ascending triangle's ceiling show demand absorbing supply at a fixed price, so some traders lean long early with stops under the rising line, accepting that the lean fails if the floor gives way instead.
- Managing the failure mode: apex chop and false breakouts are the pattern's known hazards, so common tactics include requiring a volume-confirmed close outside the lines or waiting for a retest of the broken boundary before committing.
Triangles vs. other converging patterns
Rising/falling Wedge: In a wedge both boundaries slope the same direction and the classical lean runs against that slope; a triangle's boundaries converge from opposite sides or hold one side flat.
Bull/bear Flag: A pennant is effectively a small symmetrical triangle mounted on a flagpole: flags and pennants are brief post-impulse pauses, while triangles are larger structures needing multiple touches per side.
Broadening Formation: The broadening formation is the coil inverted: boundaries diverge and each swing gets wider, volatility expansion instead of the triangle's contraction.
More Ascending/descending/symmetrical Triangle implementations
Related concepts · Continuation chart patterns
Concept family
Chart & Candlestick Patterns
84 concepts mapped · 46 in the Library
Ascending/descending/symmetrical Triangle FAQ
Which way do triangles usually break out?
Classical charting assigns leans: ascending triangles favor upside breaks, descending favor downside, and symmetrical triangles favor the trend they interrupted. These are tendencies reported in classical literature, not reliable predictions for any single pattern, and every type breaks against its lean often enough that most traders wait for the resolution instead of front-running it.
What is the price target after a triangle breakout?
The standard measure rule takes the triangle's height at its widest point and projects it from the breakout level, giving a minimum objective. Some chartists instead run a line parallel to the unbroken boundary. Both are planning estimates, not promises: targets can be overshot or never reached, so they pair with trade management rather than replace it.
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