Chart Patterns Cheat Sheet: 30+ Setups With Entry, Stop, and Target Rules

Most chart pattern cheat sheets are wall art. They show you a shape and a green arrow, and then leave you staring at a live chart with no idea where the trade actually starts or where you are wrong. This one is built the other way around: every pattern below comes with the signal it gives, the trigger that puts you in, the level that invalidates it, and the measured move that sets your target.

Key Takeaways

• A pattern is only tradable once you can state its entry trigger, its invalidation level, and its measured target. If you cannot name all three, you are looking at a picture, not a setup.
• Volume, trend context, and timeframe decide whether a textbook shape is worth risking money on. The same head and shoulders means very different things on a 5-minute chart in a strong uptrend and on a daily chart after a two-year run.
• No pattern has a fixed win rate. Published statistics were measured on markets, timeframes, and entry rules that are probably not yours, so the only numbers worth acting on are the ones from your own logged trades.

How to Read This Cheat Sheet

Every table below uses the same five columns, and each one answers a question you have to answer before you can place an order.

• Pattern: the name you will see in scanners, on trading desks, and in the rest of the complete chart patterns guide.
• Signal: what the structure implies about the next move, bullish, bearish, or continuation of whatever came before.
• Entry trigger: the specific event that starts the trade. In almost every case it is a close beyond a level, not a touch of it. Trading the touch is how traders get picked off by wicks.
• Stop placement: the level that says the idea is wrong. This is the column most cheat sheets skip, and it is the only one that controls your losses.
• Measured target: the projection the pattern’s own geometry gives you. Treat it as a first target, not a promise.

Two notes before the tables. First, every entry assumes a close on your trading timeframe, not an intrabar spike. Second, every measured target assumes you have already checked the three filters in the section further down; a pattern that fails those filters is not worth trading no matter how clean it looks.

Reversal Patterns Cheat Sheet

Reversal patterns mark the point where the prevailing trend runs out of participants. They only mean anything when there is an established trend to reverse, which is why a double bottom inside a six-month range is noise and the same shape after a long decline is a setup.

Pattern	Signal	Entry trigger	Stop placement	Measured target
Head and shoulders	Bearish reversal	Close below the neckline	Above the right shoulder high	Head to neckline distance projected down from the break
Inverse head and shoulders	Bullish reversal	Close above the neckline	Below the right shoulder low	Head to neckline distance projected up from the break
Double top	Bearish reversal	Close below the middle trough	Above the second peak	Peak to trough height projected down
Double bottom	Bullish reversal	Close above the middle peak	Below the second trough	Trough to peak height projected up
Triple top	Bearish reversal	Close below the shared support line	Above the highest of the three peaks	Pattern height projected down from support
Triple bottom	Bullish reversal	Close above the shared resistance line	Below the lowest of the three troughs	Pattern height projected up from resistance
Rounding bottom (saucer)	Bullish reversal	Close above the rim of the saucer	Below the curve’s lowest point	Depth of the bowl projected up from the rim
Rounding top	Bearish reversal	Close below the rim	Above the curve’s highest point	Depth of the dome projected down from the rim
Cup and handle	Bullish continuation or reversal	Close above the handle’s high	Below the handle’s low	Cup depth projected up from the breakout
Inverse cup and handle	Bearish	Close below the handle’s low	Above the handle’s high	Cup depth projected down from the breakdown
Rising wedge	Bearish reversal	Close below the lower rising trendline	Above the most recent swing high inside the wedge	Height of the wedge at its widest projected down
Falling wedge	Bullish reversal	Close above the upper falling trendline	Below the most recent swing low inside the wedge	Height of the wedge at its widest projected up

Three of these have full breakdowns on the site if you want the annotated version: the head and shoulders pattern, the double bottom pattern, and the cup and handle pattern. The bearish twin is covered separately in the inverse cup and handle guide.

Continuation Patterns Cheat Sheet

Continuation patterns are pauses. Price has already moved, buyers and sellers rebalance for a while, and then the original move resumes. They are usually the higher probability group precisely because you are trading with the existing trend instead of calling a turn.

Pattern	Signal	Entry trigger	Stop placement	Measured target
Bull flag	Bullish continuation	Close above the flag’s upper channel line	Below the flag’s lowest candle	Length of the flagpole projected up from the break
Bear flag	Bearish continuation	Close below the flag’s lower channel line	Above the flag’s highest candle	Length of the flagpole projected down from the break
Bullish pennant	Bullish continuation	Close above the pennant’s upper converging line	Below the pennant’s apex low	Flagpole length projected up
Bearish pennant	Bearish continuation	Close below the pennant’s lower converging line	Above the pennant’s apex high	Flagpole length projected down
Ascending triangle	Bullish continuation	Close above the flat resistance line	Below the last higher low inside the triangle	Widest part of the triangle projected up
Descending triangle	Bearish continuation	Close below the flat support line	Above the last lower high inside the triangle	Widest part of the triangle projected down
Symmetrical triangle	Continuation of the prior trend	Close beyond either converging line	Just past the opposite converging line	Widest part of the triangle projected in the breakout direction
Rectangle (trading range)	Continuation of the prior trend	Close beyond the range boundary	Back inside the range, past the midpoint	Range height projected in the breakout direction
Volatility contraction pattern (VCP)	Bullish continuation	Close above the pivot of the final tight contraction	Below the low of that final contraction	No fixed projection; manage with a trailing stop against the prior base
Order block	Continuation from institutional supply or demand	Reaction candle closing back out of the block in the trend direction	Beyond the far edge of the block	Next opposing liquidity level or prior swing extreme
Fair value gap	Continuation after an imbalance fills	Rejection close at the gap edge in the trend direction	Beyond the far edge of the gap	Prior swing extreme in the trend direction

Triangles cause more confusion than any other group on this page, so there is a dedicated triangle chart pattern guide plus separate walkthroughs of the ascending triangle and the descending triangle. For the two modern structures at the bottom of the table, see the volatility contraction pattern and fair value gap breakdowns.

Candlestick Patterns Cheat Sheet

Candlestick patterns are single-bar or few-bar events rather than multi-week structures. They are timing tools, not standalone trades. A hammer at a level you already care about is a signal. A hammer in the middle of nowhere is a candle.

Pattern	Signal	Entry trigger	Stop placement	Measured target
Hammer	Bullish reversal at support	Close above the hammer’s high	Below the hammer’s low	Next resistance level or prior swing high
Inverted hammer	Bullish reversal after a decline	Close above the candle’s high on the next bar	Below the candle’s low	Next resistance level
Hanging man	Bearish reversal at resistance	Close below the candle’s low	Above the candle’s high	Next support level
Shooting star	Bearish reversal after an advance	Close below the candle’s low	Above the upper wick	Next support level
Bullish engulfing	Bullish reversal	Close above the engulfing candle’s high	Below the engulfing candle’s low	Prior swing high
Bearish engulfing	Bearish reversal	Close below the engulfing candle’s low	Above the engulfing candle’s high	Prior swing low
Morning star	Bullish reversal, three bars	Close above the third candle’s high	Below the middle candle’s low	Prior swing high
Evening star	Bearish reversal, three bars	Close below the third candle’s low	Above the middle candle’s high	Prior swing low
Doji	Indecision, potential turn at extremes	Close beyond the doji’s range	Opposite side of the doji’s range	Nearest level in the breakout direction
Dragonfly doji	Bullish rejection of lower prices	Close above the doji’s high	Below the long lower wick	Next resistance level
Gravestone doji	Bearish rejection of higher prices	Close below the doji’s low	Above the long upper wick	Next support level
Three white soldiers	Bullish continuation or reversal	Close above the third candle’s high	Below the first candle’s low	Next major resistance
Three black crows	Bearish continuation or reversal	Close below the third candle’s low	Above the first candle’s high	Next major support

The doji family alone has enough variations to justify its own reference, which is why there is a separate guide to the types of doji candles. For the two most common single candles, see the bullish hammer candle and the bearish engulfing pattern, and for the three-bar version there is a full morning star pattern walkthrough.

Print or Save This Cheat Sheet

The tables above are formatted to print cleanly on standard paper with no signup, no email, and no download wall. Use the button to print the reference directly, or choose “Save as PDF” in the print dialog to keep a copy on your desktop next to your platform.

Print or save this cheat sheet

How to Use the Cheat Sheet on a Live Chart

Reading a pattern in a table and finding one in real time are different skills. The workflow below is the one I use, and it takes about a minute per chart once it becomes habit.

1. Zoom out first. Open the chart on TradingView or your platform of choice and look at the daily before the intraday. A pattern you can only see on one timeframe usually is not there.
2. Name the trend. Write down whether price is making higher highs, lower lows, or neither. This single step eliminates most bad pattern trades, because it tells you whether you are looking at a continuation setup or trying to catch a turn.
3. Draw the two lines that define the structure. Neckline and shoulder line, the two converging trendlines, the flat side of the triangle. If you cannot draw them cleanly, the pattern is not clean.
4. Mark the trigger, the stop, and the target before you do anything else. Put all three on the chart. If the distance from entry to stop is larger than the distance from entry to target, you have found a pattern, not a trade.
5. Set an alert at the trigger level and walk away. Watching a pattern form is how traders talk themselves into early entries.

If you would rather have the platform flag structures for you than draw them by hand, the roundup of the best TradingView indicators covers the pattern-detection tools worth adding to a chart and the ones that just add noise.

The Three Filters That Decide Whether a Pattern Is Worth Trading

Volume

Almost every pattern on this page carries the same volume expectation: contraction while the structure forms, expansion on the break. A bull flag that drifts sideways on falling volume and then breaks out on a surge is doing what it is supposed to do. A breakout on volume lighter than the consolidation is the single most common failure signature, and it shows up long before price tells you anything.

Trend context

Continuation patterns need a trend to continue. Reversal patterns need a trend to reverse. Both are meaningless inside a long sideways range, which is where most of the ambiguous shapes you see actually live. Before you name a pattern, name what came before it. If the answer is “chop,” skip the chart.

Timeframe

The same structure carries very different weight depending on how long it took to build. A head and shoulders that formed over four months represents months of accumulated positioning, and its measured move deserves respect. The same shape on a 5-minute chart represents about ninety minutes of order flow and will be invalidated by a single news headline. Size your expectations to the timeframe that built the pattern, not the timeframe you like to trade.

Where Cheat Sheets Fail Traders

I have used versions of this reference for years, and the failure modes are always the same three.

The first is pattern hunting. Once you have three dozen shapes memorized, you will find all of them, including on charts where nothing is happening. The fix is a rule that a pattern only counts if you can draw its defining lines in under fifteen seconds. Structures that need squinting are structures you invented.

The second is treating the measured target as a forecast. The projection is geometry, not prophecy. Plenty of clean breakouts stall at half the measured move and plenty run double. Use the target to size the trade and to decide whether the risk is worth taking, then manage the position with a stop rather than a price prediction.

The third is the one that costs the most: assuming published win rates apply to you. Pattern statistics you find online were measured on a specific market, a specific timeframe, and a specific set of entry rules that almost certainly are not yours. Over my years of trading the only numbers that ever changed how I trade came out of my own records. Tag the pattern name on every trade you take, give it thirty or forty trades, and the cheat sheet stops being a list of shapes and starts being a short list of the setups your own records actually support.

That is also the honest case for the two links above. The Financial Tech Wiz Trading Journal runs the analytics for you across every position, with win rate and P/L broken down by symbol and hold duration, and the free spreadsheet does a lighter version of the same job if you would rather start there. Either way, the pattern list is the hypothesis and your trade log is the test.

FAQ

Is there a chart patterns cheat sheet PDF I can download?

Yes, without giving up an email address. Use the print button above and choose “Save as PDF” as the destination in your print dialog. The page strips its navigation, sidebar, and forms when printed, so what you get is the tables on their own, formatted to stay readable on paper.

What is the most reliable chart pattern?

There is no universal answer, and any source that gives you one is quoting a study run on a market and timeframe that may have nothing to do with yours. As a rule of thumb, traders tend to find continuation patterns like flags and ascending triangles easier to trade than reversal patterns, because they go with the existing trend instead of against it. That is a rule of thumb, not a measured edge. The reliable answer for your account comes from your own tagged trade history.

Do chart patterns work on every timeframe?

The shapes appear on every timeframe, but their reliability and their measured moves scale with the time it took to build them. Daily and weekly patterns represent far more positioning than intraday ones and tend to hold better. If you trade intraday, expect more failed breakouts and size the stop accordingly rather than assuming the daily-chart statistics carry over.

Are candlestick patterns the same as chart patterns?

They are related but different. Chart patterns are multi-bar structures built over days, weeks, or months, like a head and shoulders or a triangle. Candlestick patterns are one to three bar events that describe what happened inside a short window. The practical difference is that chart patterns give you a measured target from their own geometry while candlesticks mostly give you timing, which is why the candlestick table above uses the next level rather than a projection.

How many chart patterns do I actually need to know?

Far fewer than are on this page. A short list of setups you know cold is generally easier to execute consistently than a long one, and this sheet exists so you can recognize what you are looking at and rule things out quickly, not so you can trade all of them. Start with one continuation pattern and one reversal pattern, trade only those for a few months, and add a third only once the first two are producing records you can point to.