What qualifies
- Swings: swing highs and lows (3 days on each side) in the last 90 days, at least two of each, spanning at least 20 days.
- Lines: a least-squares line through the last 2–4 swing highs (upper line) and another through the last 2–4 swing lows (lower line).
- Converging: the gap between the lines today is under 70% of the gap where the triangle starts, and at least 85% of daily closes since the start sit between the lines (with a margin of half an ATR).
- Flat or sloped: a line counts as flat if it moves less than 25% of the triangle’s starting height over its length. Ascending: flat top, rising bottom. Descending: falling top, flat bottom. Symmetrical: falling top and rising bottom.
- Status: Breaking out when the latest close is above the upper line, Breaking down when below the lower line, otherwise Inside. Touches counts swings within 1× ATR of their line.
Reading triangles
Triangles show a market coiling as the range narrows. Ascending triangles (sellers holding a level while buyers pay more each time) are usually read as bullish, descending triangles as bearish, and symmetrical triangles as neutral until price leaves them. Breakouts close to the apex, where the lines meet, tend to be weaker.
Patterns are found mechanically on daily candles from the data provider. Not investment advice.
Frequently asked questions
What does the quality score mean?
It’s a 0–100 score of how cleanly the pattern fits the rules above (for example, how tight the flag is, how round the cup is, or how closely the two lows match). It isn’t a probability and says nothing about what price does next. Use it to sort the list, then look at the chart: click a symbol to open it on FreeCharting.
Are these patterns reliable?
Chart patterns are a way to describe price action, not a prediction. Many fail, and they work differently in different markets. The detection is mechanical: a pattern can qualify on the numbers and still look wrong to your eye, and a pattern you’d draw by hand may miss one rule. Nothing here is investment advice.
Which markets can it scan?
Four, picked with the Market buttons above the table. Crypto (the default) scans the 250 busiest USDT pairs on Binance. Crypto perps scans the 200 busiest USDT perpetual futures on OKX. Both are free public data and need no key. US stocks scans about 600 US stocks and ETFs with your own free Alpaca key, and CME futures scans about 25 front-month CME Group contracts (stock indexes, Treasuries, oil, gas, metals, grains, livestock, currencies and CME bitcoin) with your own free Massive key.
Why do stocks and futures need a key?
Stock and futures prices are licensed data, so a website can’t hand them out for free. Alpaca (for stocks) and Massive (for futures) give anyone a free data key. Your key is saved only in your browser and sent only to that provider. See how to get a free Alpaca key and how to get a free Massive key for futures.
Is the data real-time?
Crypto and crypto perps are live from Binance and OKX, on daily candles that start at 00:00 UTC (today’s candle is still forming). Alpaca’s free stock data is 15 minutes behind the market, and Massive’s free futures plan is 8 hours delayed. Turn on auto-refresh next to the results to update the table in place every 30 seconds, minute or 5 minutes.