Constructing rounded bottoms, triangles, and pennants

Construction checklists

TradersWeek editorial: treat these uncommon bullish shapes as construction checklists. Chart scale, boundary touches, a duration-gate, and a confirmation-close let a rounded bottom, a contracting or expanding triangle, or a short pennant be accepted or rejected before any trade hypothesis is written.

The historical workflow is a drawing test. A rounded bottom, a triangle pattern, and a flag and pennant are finished only when those construction cues are present.

Rounded bottom

A rounded bottom is constructed as a gradual saucer or bowl after an advance. The weekly scale is commonly used because the arc is large, though that scale is not required.

Construction of a rounded bottom is complete only after a close above the left bowl-lip high. The bowl-lip is the left-side high that a rounding bottom must close above before construction is complete. If a later handle draws a downsloping line, the next construction cue is an upward pierce of that handle line.

Volume during a rounded bottom can itself trace a bowl, so the volume arc belongs in the same construction reading as the price saucer.

A large ascending triangle can occupy the approach to a rounding bottom, so a flat-top triangle is a valid lead-in geometry rather than only a rising trend into the bowl.

Falling wedge, pennant, and the duration-gate

A falling wedge is constructed from two downward-sloping boundaries that join at an apex, each with at least two minor-high and two minor-low touches, frequent crossings, and little empty space inside the lines.

A contracting look-alike shorter than three weeks is constructed as a pennant rather than a falling wedge. A falling wedge should last at least three weeks and rarely more than four months. That span is the duration-gate that separates a falling wedge from a pennant.

Treat a falling-wedge drawing as unfinished when it has fewer than five boundary touches, typically two on one line and three on the other.

Along a falling wedge, volume typically recedes until the boundary break, so a declining volume line is part of the construction profile.

Expanding triangle and the partial decline

An expanding triangle variant is constructed with a horizontal upper line and a descending lower line so the range widens over time.

A partial decline is a pullback from the upper boundary that turns up before reaching the lower boundary. A partial decline is read only after both lines already have two touches.