Win rate62%N=26
LLYTarget: $1,221+$80.84+7.1%
Lead-in rally+8.7%Target+7.1%Volmid 43%
An ascending triangle forms when a stock keeps meeting the same ceiling while each dip stops a little higher. Here's how to recognize both possible break directions, build the trade plan, and read TradingPal's historical results without treating them as a forecast.
14 formed in the last 45 days, caught by our screener.
An ascending triangle is a pattern where a stock's price keeps hitting the same ceiling — say $50, again and again — while each pullback stops a little higher than the last one. Draw a flat ceiling and a rising floor, and you get a triangle leaning against a wall. If those price roles are new to you, the support and resistance guide explains them first.
One way traders interpret the shape is that supply keeps meeting price at the ceiling while buyers accept higher pullback prices. That story explains the bullish lean; it does not prove the next break. The historical test below measures both directions.
Unlike a bull pennant, an ascending triangle doesn't need a sharp run-up in front of it, and it usually builds over weeks rather than days.
Checking a chart by hand? You're looking for all four of these:
The tricky part of doing this by hand is honesty: it's easy to draw the lines you want to see. Two peaks at $49.80 and $50.40 — is that a flat ceiling or not? Our screener draws the lines the same strict way on every chart, every night, so the answer never depends on mood.
A triangle can break either way, so we show you both sides. When one breaks upward it trades like a bull pennant; downward, like a bear pennant. Below is the latest completed published result for each direction, using the entry and exit rules described here. See how TradingPal backtests patterns for the full method and its confirmation limitation.
Treat the numbers as a record over many trades, not a promise about the next one. Read the displayed win rate beside average R, payoff ratio, profit factor, and sample size to see what the measured wins and losses actually produced. The track-record metrics guide explains how those numbers fit together.
Historical results of the simulated strategy above, refreshed nightly — not a prediction. How we test →
Our screener re-draws these lines on 500+ stocks every night. Here's what its latest scan flagged as a current ascending triangle.
14 fresh ascending triangles formed in the last 45 days across our growing universe of 600+ scanned tickers (93 charts tracked for this pattern in total). Scan updated Jul 2, 2026.
One real ascending triangle — detected on LLY.
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14 matching setupsin this guide's latest scan.
Everything below comes from rules we've tested on thousands of historical trades. Tap through the three steps to see each one drawn on the chart. For a quick primer on entry, stop, target, and R, read risk/reward and R-multiples.
After the detector could establish the triangle on the prior bar, the simulation rests an order at the confirmed trigger—the flat ceiling plus its required threshold. It fills on the first eligible bar that reaches that level; a gap above it fills at the worse opening price. In an A/B across roughly 54,000 trades, this confirmed-level first-poke and breakout-close entry both won about 53% of the time, while the first-poke produced roughly 28% more total R.
Before the breakout, the price makes one last dip off the rising floor (the “swing low”). That level defines the planned invalidation. The test exits at the close of a later bar that closes beyond it, so an overshoot or gap can lose more than the planned 1R. The historical win rate assumes that same exit rule.
Measure the triangle's height at its tallest point—ceiling to the first dip—and project that distance up from the trigger. That is the measured-move target. A bullish break follows the tested ride rule after reaching it, trailing the 10-day average; a bearish break takes its result at the projected downside target.
Set your order at the line in advance — you're in the moment price pushes through, not at the day's much higher close.
Textbooks usually call it bullish because each pullback stops higher under one flat ceiling. That is an interpretation of the shape, not proof of what buyers intend. The latest stored results above show what the tested rules actually did in both directions.
But not always. Some break down through the rising floor instead, and the same shape after a long downtrend can mark a possible reversal. You don't have to predict which it will be: the confirmed trigger decides whether a trade begins and in which direction.
Completed examples — wins and losses, with real dates and results from our nightly test. Each links to that stock's live chart so you can see exactly how it unfolded.
The three triangle patterns are siblings. What separates them is which line is doing the work:
The mirror image: a flat floor holds while the bounces get weaker. It has a bearish historical lean, with the downside trigger defining the tested trade.
Both lines slope toward each other — highs stepping down while lows step up. The shape alone does not choose a side, so the tested trade waits for the confirmed trigger.
A much smaller, faster squeeze that only counts when it follows a sharp run-up (the “pole”). An ascending triangle stands on its own and takes weeks.
A descending triangle forms when a stock keeps landing on the same floor while each bounce fades sooner.
A symmetrical triangle is a stock coiling tighter and tighter — lower highs and higher lows squeezing toward a point — with neither buyers nor sellers in charge.
A bull pennant is a short breather after a stock runs higher.
Educational content, not investment advice. Backtest statistics are historical results of a simulated strategy, refreshed nightly — they describe the past, not the next trade.