An ascending triangle is a chart shape where a stock keeps bumping into the same ceiling price while its dips get shallower and shallower — buyers getting more eager while sellers defend one line. It usually resolves with a pop through the ceiling. Here's how to recognize it, trade it, and what our testing says about how often it works.
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 line across those equal highs and a rising line under the climbing dips, and you get a triangle leaning against a wall.
The story behind the shape: someone is selling a lot of shares at that ceiling price, capping every attempt. But buyers keep coming back sooner and paying up faster each time. Eventually the seller runs out of shares — and with no one left defending the ceiling, the price pops through it.
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 are the live results of our nightly backtest for each direction — every trade simulated with the exact entry and exit rules this guide teaches.
Treat the numbers as odds over many trades, not a promise about the next one. The edge comes from the combination: a better-than-coin-flip hit rate, losers kept small by the safety exit, and winners allowed to run.
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 the 500+ stocks we scan (94 charts tracked for this pattern in total). Scan updated Jul 2, 2026.
A real ascending triangle from the latest scan — detected 2026-07-02 on BBY. Live chart, live lines.
13 more live ascending triangle setups — every chart, breakout level, and target.
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.
The flat ceiling is your line. Set your order right at it, in advance, so you're in the moment the price pushes through. If the stock opens the day already above the ceiling (it “gapped” overnight), your buy happens at that opening price instead. Don't wait to see the big breakout day close and buy then — same trade, worse price. Across roughly 54,000 backtested pattern trades, buying at the line won just as often but made about 28% more in total.
Before the breakout, the price makes one last dip off the rising floor (the “swing low”). If the price later falls back below that dip, the breakout has failed — get out. Deciding this exit before you buy turns a failed pattern into a small, known cost instead of an open-ended one. All our win rates assume this exit.
Measure the triangle's height at its tallest point — ceiling to the first dip — and project that distance up from the ceiling. That's the natural target (the “measured move”). One more thing from our testing: a triangle that breaks UP trades like a bull pennant, and for those, staying in after the target — as long as the price holds above its 10-day average — made more money than selling at the target. If it breaks DOWN instead, the projected target below is simply where that trade takes its win.
Set your order at the line in advance — you're in the moment price pushes through, not at the day's much higher close.
Usually bullish. The rising floor means buyers are getting more aggressive, and most ascending triangles resolve with a breakout up through the ceiling. That's the textbook answer — and, unusually, our test data agrees with the textbook (the numbers above).
But not always. Some break DOWN through the rising floor instead, and the same shape after a long downtrend can mark the spot where a fall ends and a recovery starts (a “reversal”). You don't have to predict which it will be: the trade only starts when the price actually breaks a line, and the direction of that break decides everything.
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 and weaker. It leans bearish — the usual break is down through the floor.
Both lines slope toward each other — highs stepping down while lows step up. Neither side is in charge, so the breakout direction is closer to a coin flip.
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.
Educational content, not investment advice. Backtest statistics are historical results of a simulated strategy, refreshed nightly — they describe the past, not the next trade.