Head & Shoulders

Head & Shoulders is the definitive clean detector for the head and shoulders reversal and its inverse. Candidates must pass explicit geometry — the head the extreme peak, shoulders roughly symmetric in height and duration on the pattern side of the neckline, tilt capped — before the outline and dashed neckline are drawn. Nothing is a signal until price closes through the neckline: the break freezes the line, projects the head-to-neckline height as a measured objective, and tags breaks lacking volume expansion.

How to Trade the Head & Shoulders?

• Pattern Forming alert: the right shoulder just confirmed — a scenario, not yet a trade.
• Neckline break: a decisive close completes the pattern; a Break (low vol) tag flags a move without volume expansion.
• Retest event: the first return to the broken neckline without reclaiming it — the entry many traders prefer over chasing the break.
• Failed label: consecutive closes back through the neckline, or a close beyond the right shoulder, end the trade premise.

Every stage carries its own alert, from forming to objective.

Head & Shoulders Settings

• Swing Length (default 10): bars each side a pivot must dominate; larger finds wider, slower patterns.
• Require Prior Trend (default enabled): only accept patterns reversing an established trend.
• Shoulder Symmetry Tolerance % (default 50): maximum shoulder height and leg-duration asymmetry.
• Neckline Tilt Limit % (default 50): maximum neckline drift as a share of pattern height.
• Completion Window (Bars) (default 100): bars allowed for the neckline close-through.
• Reclaim Bars For Failure (default 2): closes back through the neckline that declare a failed break.
• Flag Low Volume Breaks (default enabled): compare break volume against its 20-bar average.
• Style toggles: outline, S/H/S labels, measured objective and event labels, all on.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a Head & Shoulders differ from a Triple Top?

A triple top prints three peaks near a shared level; the head and shoulders demands the middle peak stand above both shoulders. That higher-high-then-failure sequence is the pattern's argument.

Why did a forming pattern disappear from the chart?

Two built-in invalidations: price traded through the head before completion, or the completion window expired without a neckline close-through. Both discard the shape.

Is the measured objective a reliable price target?

It is the classical measured move — pattern height projected from the break — better used as a scenario or a scale-out point. The build tracks it either way: Target hit when reached, Failed when the neckline is reclaimed first.