Concept
Rare Reversal Patterns
Rare Reversal Patterns, also known as tower, pipe, horn tops/bottoms, are Chart & Candlestick Patterns concepts. The Library holds 2 implementations, each one a working definition you can pull into Quant.
Bulkowski
Top Rare Reversal Patterns indicators
2 total
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What are Rare Reversal Patterns?
Rare reversal patterns are the low-frequency turning-point formations cataloged in Thomas Bulkowski's pattern research and the Japanese candlestick literature: pipe tops and bottoms, horn tops and bottoms, and tower tops and bottoms. Pipes are two adjacent, unusually long parallel spikes that stand out from the surrounding bars, classically identified on weekly charts; horns are the same twin spikes separated by one smaller bar between them. Towers are built from candles: a run of strong one-directional candles, a short congestion, then an equally steep run the other way.
What unites them is the anatomy of abrupt failure: an outsized excursion, often on heavy volume, that cannot hold and reverses, closer in spirit to a key reversal or island reversal than to a gradual rounded turn. Because they print rarely, per-pattern sample sizes are small and their statistics are less stable than those of common formations, which argues for extra confirmation.
How traders use it
- As exhaustion alerts after extended trends: twin spikes (pipes or horns) below the market are read as a selling climax, with entries taken on strength back above the spikes rather than inside them.
- As candidates from range-and-volume scans: unusually long bars relative to their neighbors, such as wide-range bars on elevated volume, surface possible pipes, horns, and towers for manual review.
- As context for stop placement: the extreme of the spike or tower defines the invalidation point, since a return beyond it says the reversal failed.
Related concepts · Reversal chart patterns
Concept family
Chart & Candlestick Patterns
84 concepts mapped · 46 in the Library
Rare Reversal Patterns FAQ
What is a pipe bottom pattern?
A pipe bottom is two adjacent bars with unusually long downward spikes of similar depth, standing well below the surrounding price action, classically identified on weekly charts after a decline. The twin probes show sellers forcing price down twice and failing to keep it there. Confirmation is usually a close above the tops of the two spike bars; the pattern is not traded on the spikes alone.
Why are pipe, horn, and tower patterns called rare?
They occur far less often than staples like double tops or head and shoulders, partly because their definitions demand outlier bar ranges that most weeks never produce. Rarity cuts both ways: the patterns are distinctive when they do appear, but small sample sizes make any published success statistics less stable, so most chartists treat them as secondary evidence that needs confirmation.
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