Head and shoulders

Three peaks, the middle one highest

What it is

A peak, a higher peak, then a lower peak, with a rough line connecting the two intervening lows, called the neckline.

What it may suggest

A trend failing to make progress. A close below the neckline is the pattern completing. The inverse version, three troughs with the middle one lowest, forms after a decline and completes on a close above its neckline.

Where it fails

Heavily pattern-matched by people looking for it, so it is claimed far more often than it completes. Without the neckline break it is just three bumps.

Also called head & shoulders, inverse head and shoulders.

More chart patterns

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