How to read a Ascending Triangle
An ascending triangle forms when price keeps hitting the same ceiling while each pullback stops a little higher than the last. Sellers are holding one price. Buyers keep stepping up underneath them. Something usually gives.
What it looks like
Look for a flat top that has been tested at least two or three times, and a rising line connecting the lows. The space between them gets narrower as the pattern matures.
The rising lows are what make it an ascending triangle. A flat top with flat lows is just a range, and it tells you much less about who is winning.
How traders read it
The trade is the break above the flat top. Many traders like to see the breakout candle come with a jump in volume, since that suggests the seller at that level is finally done.
The stop usually goes under the most recent higher low. For a target, measure the height of the triangle at its widest point and add it to the breakout price.
Each test of the ceiling matters. The more times price comes back to it, the fewer shares the seller has left there.
When it fails
Sometimes the seller at the top is bigger than anyone thought. Price pokes through, can't hold, and drops back into the triangle. A break of the rising support line after that is a strong sign the pattern has failed.
Watch round numbers too. A flat top at an even dollar can attract new sellers right at the breakout, and the push through can fizzle.
Practice it
Pick an example above and replay it. Count the tests of the top as they happen and decide before the break whether you'd take it. Then see how many of these actually followed through.
Educational content only, not trading advice. Patterns describe what price did, not what it will do next.