Pattern Glossary

Minervini's signature setup. A series of progressively tighter price contractions inside a base, each with lower price range and declining volume. The stock shakes out weak holders and builds a tight coil before exploding.

O'Neil's classic setup from 'How to Make Money in Stocks.' A rounded U-shaped base (the cup) followed by a short, shallow pullback (the handle). The handle shakes out the last weak holders before the breakout.

A tight, orderly pullback after a sharp vertical advance. The flag trades sideways or slightly downward on declining volume, then resolves with a breakout that continues the prior uptrend.

Similar to a bull flag but with converging trendlines forming a small symmetrical triangle. After a sharp flagpole advance, the stock consolidates in a narrowing range before breaking out.

O'Neil's rarest and most powerful pattern. The stock nearly doubles in 4–8 weeks, then pulls back only 10–25% over 3–5 weeks in a tight flag. This indicates extraordinary institutional demand.

A bullish continuation pattern where price makes higher lows while testing a flat resistance level repeatedly. Each test of the flat top shows accumulation; the breakout comes when demand overwhelms supply.

A strong uptrending stock pulls back to a key moving average (10, 21, 50, or 200-day) on declining volume, then bounces. The moving average acts as dynamic support, and institutions often buy these dips.

An early entry technique developed by O'Neil disciples Kacher and Morales. A pocket pivot occurs when a stock moves up from a base or key moving average on volume that exceeds any down-volume day in the prior 10 sessions.

An add-on buy point identified by O'Neil. Three consecutive weekly closes within 1–1.5% of each other, usually 15–20 weeks into a move. It signals strong institutional holding — nobody is selling.

A pattern of lower highs and lower lows with converging trendlines that slope downward. Despite the apparent downtrend, volume contracts and the stock resolves with a breakout above the upper trendline.

A three-trough bottoming structure: a low (left shoulder), a deeper low (head), and a higher low (right shoulder), capped by a neckline of resistance. Selling pressure exhausts through the head, and the shallower right shoulder shows demand returning before the breakout.

A generic breakout from a period of price consolidation (a 'base'). The stock trades in a defined range for several weeks, then breaks above the upper boundary with a significant increase in volume.

A stock in the process of building a base after a prior advance. Not yet a completed pattern — the setup is still forming. Weinstein's Stage 2 analysis: flat to rising 30-week MA, rising RS.

Nicolas Darvas's signature method from 'How I Made 2,000,000 in the Stock Market.' Price forms a rectangular box (defined high and low over several weeks) after a strong prior advance. Breakout above the box top on surging volume signals continuation. Darvas used a stop just below the box bottom.

One of O'Neil's most reliable patterns. After a prior advance, the stock consolidates sideways in a tight, flat range for at least 5 weeks. The flat base shows that institutional holders are not selling — supply is absorbed. The breakout is typically low-volatility and precise.

Minervini's highest-conviction setup, also called a high tight flag. A stock surges 100% or more in eight weeks or less on massive volume, then pauses in a very shallow, orderly consolidation instead of giving the move back. It is rare by construction — a handful of names per market cycle — so the scanner is expected to be quiet on it for long stretches.

The same shape as a Power Play with a smaller engine behind it. A Stage 2 leader advances 20–100%, then builds a shallow tight base while volume dries up and price works back toward the pivot. A real continuation setup, named for what it is: before 2026-07-29 these were published as Power Plays, which overstated them, because Minervini reserves that name for stocks that have doubled.

The Spring is the key entry signal in Wyckoff's Accumulation schematic. After a long base, price dips briefly below a prior support level — shaking out weak holders — then recovers sharply on improved volume. This false breakdown confirms that large operators (the 'Composite Man') are absorbing supply and preparing a mark-up phase.

The Sign of Strength (SOS) is the breakout from a Wyckoff accumulation range on expanding price spread and increasing volume. It confirms that large operators have finished accumulating and are marking prices up. The Last Point of Support (LPS) — a pullback after the SOS on low volume that holds above the breakout level — provides a lower-risk re-entry.

A multi-year deep recovery: the stock crashed 40-90% from its old high, spent a year and a half or more basing and climbing back, reclaimed nearly all the way to its old high (or pushed above it), and is now consolidating just under that high — catching its breath below the old peak. This is explicitly NOT a textbook Cup & Handle: it is far too deep and too long, and it needs no advance before the old high (the old high can be the IPO peak). A different structure with different risk — deep bases that fail can fall hard.

The stock's swings are getting smaller in both directions — lower highs and higher lows — squeezing into a triangle that comes to a point (the apex). Buyers and sellers are meeting in the middle. This is explicitly NOT a pennant: a pennant needs a sharp directional run (a pole) first, and this pattern requires none. When price escapes through the top rail, that is the breakout.

Sellers keep pushing the highs lower, but buyers defend the same floor — the range compresses downward into flat support. The classic read is the squeeze into the 200-day moving average: the long-term line acts as a magnet while the descending resistance presses down toward it. This is explicitly NOT a falling wedge — a wedge needs both rails falling after a prior downtrend, while this pattern requires an uptrend context (price near or above the 200-day).

The stock falls, bounces, and falls again to roughly the same low — two troughs at nearly the same price, with a reaction high between them. The second test of the low holds, which means sellers are exhausted. The high point between the troughs is the neckline. This is a bullish reversal: it only counts after a real prior decline.

The stock spent an extended stretch — months, sometimes over a year — trading under its 200-day moving average, and just pushed back above it. The 200-day is the market's long-term trend line; reclaiming it after that long below is a regime change worth noticing. A brief wiggle across the line does not count — the drought below the line is what makes it a reclaim.

The 50-day moving average just crossed above the 200-day moving average. The short-term trend just overtook the long-term trend — the classic 'the trend is turning up' signal. It is a slow, lagging confirmation, not a timing tool: by the time it fires, much of the early move may already have happened.

One bar just printed the biggest volume in a long time — either the biggest on record or the biggest since some past date. Big volume with holding prices means institutions are involved. Volume alone is not direction: a record-volume day that keeps making new lows is distribution (selling), not a bullish event.

A chart pattern whose breakout fails: price pushes through one side, then reverses and closes out the opposite side. Rather than writing the failure off, the edge is to trade the new direction — failed breakouts often produce stronger moves than the original setup would have. Conservative confirmation waits for a close beyond the pattern's extreme; aggressive traders act on a close back beyond the broken breakout level.

An early-warning predictor inside a consolidation: a partial rise climbs partway toward the range top then reverses before touching it, anticipating a downward break roughly two-thirds of the time; a partial decline dips partway down then reverses, anticipating an upward break about 72% of the time. The stall typically happens in the 38–62% retracement zone of the formation height. This is a predictor, not a confirmed breakout.

No specific chart pattern was detected, but the stock passes all Minervini Trend Template criteria: strong uptrend, above all key MAs, RS rank in top quartile. Monitor for a specific entry pattern.

A single candle with a small body at the top of its range and a long lower shadow, printed after a decline. Sellers pushed price down during the session but buyers took it back by the close — the first sign the downtrend is spent. The shadow is the story: the deeper the intraday rejection, the stronger the signal.

The hammer's exact shape — small body on top, long lower shadow — printed after an advance instead of a decline. Same candle, opposite meaning: buyers rescued the session, but the size of the intraday sell-off warns that supply is arriving. It is a warning to tighten up, not a short signal on its own.

A small body at the bottom of the bar with a long upper shadow, after an advance. Buyers ran price up during the session and sellers drove it back to the open by the close — a failed probe higher. The longer the upper shadow, the more supply was waiting above.

The shooting star's shape — small body low in the range, long upper shadow — printed after a decline. Buyers probed higher and were pushed back, but the probe itself is the tell: demand is testing supply. It needs confirmation before it means anything.

Open and close at nearly the same price: the session was a stalemate. Mid-trend a doji means momentum is spent and the side that was winning has stopped winning. Direction comes from the trend it interrupts — a doji after an advance is a bearish reversal watch, after a decline a bullish one.

A doji with a long lower shadow and virtually no upper shadow: sellers drove price down hard and buyers recovered all of it by the close. The hammer's message with an even more decisive rejection — after a decline, one of the cleanest single-candle reversal prints.

The dragonfly inverted: open and close at the session low with a long upper shadow. Buyers probed higher and were rejected completely. After an advance, it marks a failed probe and a likely turn down; the name is the sentiment.