Win rate22%N=23
LENTarget: $77.73-$9.64-11.0%
Lead-in rally+6.3%Target-11.0%Volhigh 66%
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. The break can go either way, and the trade doesn't start until it happens. Here's how to spot one, how to trade both directions, and what our testing shows.
95 formed in the last 45 days, caught by our screener.
A symmetrical triangle is a pattern where a stock's swings shrink from both sides at once: lower highs and higher lows squeeze toward a point, like a coiling spring. The trend line basics guide explains how those two boundaries are drawn.
One way traders interpret the shape is a balanced tug-of-war: pullbacks stop a little higher while bounces stop a little lower. That story does not choose the winner; the historical test waits for a confirmed trigger in either direction.
Unlike a pennant, a symmetrical triangle doesn't need a sharp run (a “pole”) in front of it, and it usually builds over weeks rather than days. Without that pole pointing the way, the shape alone does not choose a direction — which is why the tested trade waits for the confirmed trigger.
Checking a chart by hand? You're looking for all four of these:
Traders often look for volume (shares changing hands) to quiet as the triangle tightens and expand on the break. Treat that as context, not proof by itself; TradingPal's test follows the defined price trigger.
A symmetrical triangle is a both-ways pattern, 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.
The edge does not come from predicting the direction inside the triangle. 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 results produced. The track-record metrics guide explains how they 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 symmetrical triangle.
95 fresh symmetrical triangles formed in the last 45 days across our growing universe of 600+ scanned tickers (832 charts tracked for this pattern in total). Scan updated Jul 2, 2026.
One real symmetrical triangle — detected on LEN.
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95 matching setupsin this guide's latest scan.
Because the break can go either way, think of it as two possible triggers around the shape. An order is only eligible after the detector could establish the pattern on a prior bar. A downward trigger is also useful if you own the stock: it shows the coil resolved against the long side.
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 prior-bar establishment, the simulation rests at the confirmed trigger—the relevant boundary plus or minus its required threshold. It fills on the first eligible bar that reaches the level; a gap through 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.
For an upward break, the invalidation sits below the last small dip (the “swing low”); for a downward break, it sits above the last small bounce (the “swing high”). The test exits at the close of a later bar that closes beyond that level, so an overshoot or gap can lose more than the planned 1R.
Measure the triangle's height at its widest point and project that distance from the breakout point, in the direction of the break — that's the symmetrical triangle pattern target (the “measured move”). A downward break banks its result there. An upward break doesn't sell there: it stays in while the price holds above its average of the last 10 days (the “10-day moving average”) and exits when a day finally closes below it — in our testing, that patience made more than selling at the 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.
Neither — until it breaks. A bullish symmetrical triangle and a bearish symmetrical triangle pattern are the same shape; the only difference is which line gives way. The trend the triangle formed in leans the odds a little (one inside a long rise breaks up a bit more often, and vice versa), but the edge is small.
That's not a weakness — it's the instruction manual. Don't bet on a direction while the price is still inside the lines. The trade starts when one line actually breaks, and from that moment it trades like its directional cousins: an upward break like a bull pennant, a downward break like a bear pennant.
Completed examples — wins and losses in both directions, with real dates and results from our nightly test. Each links to that stock's live chart.
Same family, different tells. What separates them is the pole and which line is doing the work:
A pennant is a symmetrical triangle in miniature — but it only counts right after a sharp run (the “pole”), it forms in days instead of weeks, and the pole gives it a directional lean the triangle doesn't have.
The ceiling is flat — the same price keeps rejecting every push — while the floor rises. That one-sided pressure gives it a bullish lean the symmetrical triangle lacks.
The floor is flat — the same price keeps catching every drop — while the ceiling falls. It leans bearish, usually breaking down through the floor.
An ascending triangle forms when a stock keeps meeting the same ceiling while each dip stops a little higher.
A descending triangle forms when a stock keeps landing on the same floor while each bounce fades sooner.
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.