Triple Top & Bottom

Overview

A triple top is a pattern in which three peaks of roughly equal height form, after which price reverses. A triple bottom is its mirror — three troughs of roughly equal depth, then a reversal.

If a double top is "two failures", a triple is "three". The third failure does not become "third time's the charm" — it completes as proof that this level will not be crossed. The pattern appears infrequently, but is treated as a more robust reversal signal than the double.

The difference from a head and shoulders is shape. A head and shoulders has the middle peak (the "head") clearly higher; in a triple top, all three peaks sit at roughly the same height. The same price tested three times and rejected three times — a fact that weighs heavily on participants' minds.