A rare, high-reliability bullish continuation pattern: price nearly doubles in about two months, then holds in a shallow, brief consolidation. The shallower the pullback and the more intact the momentum, the stronger the buyers' conviction.
A high tight flag is a rare, high-reliability bullish continuation pattern in which an explosive short-term rally is followed by a shallow consolidation that barely gives any ground.
Across his extensive pattern testing, Thomas Bulkowski ranked it among the best-performing bullish continuation forms. It shows up only rarely, but when a qualifying form resolves, the move that follows can be large.
The shape has two parts. First comes the pole (the flagpole), where price jumps 90% or more, often close to a double, in a short window of about two months. Then comes the flag, where price drifts sideways near the top of that rally without falling much. Only when these two come together does it qualify as a high tight flag.
What matters most is how shallow the flag is. The pullback from the rally high stays under 25%, often 20% or less. After a run that steep, price still refuses to break under profit-taking. That refusal to fall is itself the evidence of how convinced the buyers are.
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