Broadening Formation (Megaphone)

Overview

The broadening formation is the triangle's opposite. Range widens with time — highs reach higher, lows reach lower, and the upper and lower boundaries diverge rather than converge. The shape resembles a megaphone (a loudspeaker), which is why English-language tradition calls it the "megaphone" or "broadening top".

This pattern appears almost exclusively at major tops — at the late stage of a strong uptrend, when participants' emotions have polarised and division, not consensus, governs the market. Edwards & Magee's classic Technical Analysis of Stock Trends introduces it as one of the most difficult formations to trade.

Where the triangle is "consensus dissolving", the broadening formation is consensus exploding. Not reasoned debate but emotional brawl; not convergence but divergence — and in most cases, the pattern dissolves untidily without a clean verdict.