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Chart patterns

The ascending wedge:rising, and narrowing.

An ascending wedge, also called a rising wedge, is a chart pattern bounded by two upward-sloping trendlines that converge, with the lower line rising more steeply than the upper. Price is still making higher highs, but by less each time. It is usually read as a weakening advance and is considered confirmed when price closes below the lower line.

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The shape of an ascending wedge

Both boundaries slope up. The lower line - connecting the higher lows - is steeper than the upper line connecting the higher highs, so the range narrows as price climbs. That narrowing is the point: each push higher gains less ground.

It can form at the end of an uptrend, where it is read as a possible reversal, or as a bounce inside a downtrend, where it is read as a possible continuation lower.

Wedge vs triangle

The two are often confused because both converge.

Wedges and triangles compared
PatternUpper lineLower lineUsual reading
Ascending (rising) wedgeSlopes upSlopes up, more steeplyBearish break more often expected
Descending (falling) wedgeSlopes down, more steeplySlopes downBullish break more often expected
Ascending triangleFlatSlopes upBreak either way; often read as bullish
Symmetrical triangleSlopes downSlopes upBreak either way

The ascending broadening wedge

The broadening version turns the geometry around: both lines still slope up, but they diverge, so each swing is wider than the last. Price is making higher highs and higher lows with growing volatility. It is less common and harder to trade, because the widening swings put stops ever further away.

Step by step

How to identify it

Draw both lines from actual touches, not from where you expect them to be.

  1. Find at least two higher highs and two higher lows.
  2. Draw the upper line through the highs and the lower line through the lows.
  3. Check that both slope up and that they converge, with the lower line steeper.
  4. Treat a close below the lower line as the confirmation most traders wait for.
  5. Note where the pattern fails - a sustained close above the upper line.

Worked example

The concept,walked through

A rising wedge that breaks down, described

An illustrative sequence in words, with round numbers standing in for price. It is not taken from any real instrument or date.

  1. 1. HighsPrice makes highs at 110, 112 and 113 - higher, but by less each time.
  2. 2. LowsThe lows between them rise faster: 104, 108, 111.
  3. 3. BreakPrice closes at 110, below the rising lower line.

The wedge described an advance that was slowing and then broke its own support. It did not say how far price would fall, or that it would not recover the line the next day.

Common mistakes

Where tradersgo wrong

Calling a channel a wedge

Parallel lines make a channel. A wedge must converge.

Shorting inside the wedge

Until the lower line breaks, the trend is still up.

Forcing lines through too few points

Two touches on each side is the minimum; fewer is a guess.

Limitations

What it cannottell you

No chart concept predicts price. These are the limits worth keeping in view.

  • Trendlines are drawn with judgement, and small changes in which points are used change the pattern.
  • Published break-direction statistics are for particular markets and periods and may not apply to what you trade.

In an evaluation

Using it on asimulated account

On a $100,000 simulated account the daily loss limit is $3,000 on Instant or $5,000 on 1 Step and 2 Step. Pattern stops are often wide, so size from the stop distance first - risking something like $500 a trade - rather than from how clean the pattern looks.

Trading rule

What is the daily loss limit?

The ceiling on a day's losses - 3% on Instant and 5% on 1 Step and 2 Step.

Trading rule

Does slippage excuse a breach?

Breaks out of tight patterns are fast, and fills can slip.

Trading rule

What is maximum drawdown?

The overall floor beneath the account.

Questions

Asked aboutthis concept

It is usually read as bearish, because the advance is losing ground each swing, and confirmation is a close below the lower line. It can also break up.

In a wedge both lines slope the same way and converge. In a triangle the lines slope toward each other, or one of them is flat.

Keep learning

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Two failed attempts at the same high - how the M pattern is drawn, what confirms it, the double bottom mirror, and its limits.

Price action and market structure

Sideways Market: How to Spot a Range

What a sideways, or ranging, market is, how to recognise one before a trend strategy is used in it, and how traders approach the range and its breaks.

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Wyckoff Method: Accumulation Explained

Richard Wyckoff's framework for reading trading ranges as accumulation or distribution, with the named events of the schematic in order.

Sources

What this pagerelied on

  1. Wedge pattern - Wikipedia. Retrieved 23 September 2026. The rising and falling wedge definitions and how a wedge differs from a triangle.
  2. Rising wedges - Thomas Bulkowski, ThePatternSite. Retrieved 23 September 2026. Pattern construction and identification guidelines; the statistics there are for US stocks and are not repeated here.

Educational content only, not investment advice or a recommendation to trade. Chart concepts describe what price has done; none of them predicts what it will do, and trading any strategy can lose money. Get Funded Now accounts are simulated and trade virtual funds. Last reviewed 22 September 2026.

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