Double Tops and Bottoms

What it means

A swing high is a candle whose high exceeds the five candles before it and the two candles after it. Because two later candles are required, a swing high is only recognised two completed candles after it forms. A swing low is the mirror image. See candlesticks and timeframes for the basics.

These alerts look for two or three swing highs, or swing lows, at roughly the same price. Roughly is measured against the market's own movement: the turns must sit within half the recent average candle range of each other, and never more than 3% apart. A fixed percentage would flag almost every large-cap shape and almost no volatile one.

Three further conditions apply. The first turn must be the most extreme point of the previous 40 candles, so there is a preceding move. Consecutive turns must be 6 to 40 candles apart, with the whole shape no wider than 46 candles. The pullback between each pair must travel at least three average candle ranges away from the nearer turn, which distinguishes two attempts from one flat stretch.

Double Top reports two swing highs at the same level. The alert arrives when the second one is confirmed, not when price later breaks anything.

Double Bottom is the downward counterpart: two swing lows at the same level.

Triple Top reports three swing highs at the same level, and Triple Bottom three swing lows. Counts are exact. Two turns report a double, three report a triple, and a level touched four or more times reports nothing at all, because a level visited that often is a range rather than a reversal.

A third test of a double's level therefore extends the pattern rather than breaking it.

In CoinScreener

All four alerts support 15m, 1h, 4h, 1D and 1W. Longer timeframes produce fewer shapes with more history behind each one; shorter ones produce many more. Match the exchange, market and timeframe when comparing another chart.

Open Alerts and select Double Top, Double Bottom, Triple Top or Triple Bottom.

• Rejected level / Defended level: the average of the turns' highs or lows.
• Neckline: the deepest pullback between the outer turns. This is the level the idea depends on; a close through it is what a chartist treats as confirmation.
• Pattern height: the distance from the level to the neckline, as a percentage of the level. It is not a target or an expected return.

The chart joins the turns and draws the neckline, plus the prior extreme the first turn had to exceed.

Each confirmed shape alerts once. The same alert can fire again only after at least three candles have elapsed. A double and a later triple on the same level are separate alerts, because the shape changed.

Three checks

1. Confirm the turns are genuinely at one level, and read the neckline as the point that would invalidate the idea.
2. Remember the alert arrives after the last turn is confirmed, so price has already left the level.
3. Compare the current price with the level and define your own exit and size before considering a trade.

Explore examples

Explore the chart lesson

Select Double top, Double bottom, Triple top or The level gives way, then step through the candles. Nothing is drawn until the last turn is confirmed, which is what the product waits for too.

Watch the market unfoldHypothetical example

Double topDouble bottomTriple topThe level gives way

01 / 05

Something to turn back from

A reversal needs a move to reverse. Price has climbed to a new extreme for this stretch of candles, so there is a high that later candles can test.

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Illustrated walkthrough · all scenarios

Double top

1. Something to turn back from. A reversal needs a move to reverse. Price has climbed to a new extreme for this stretch of candles, so there is a high that later candles can test.
2. The first attempt fails. Price turned back down from its high and has pulled away from it. One turn is not a pattern: it only marks a level that later candles may test again.
3. Back at the same level. Price has returned to its earlier high. Roughly equal means within a tolerance scaled to the market's recent candle range, not an exact match.
4. The shape is confirmed. Later candles have not exceeded the high, so the second rejection is confirmed and the alert can report the shape. The marked level between the two highs is where the idea stops working.
5. What happened next. Price falls in this hypothetical case. That was not known when the shape completed. A close back above both highs would have weakened the idea instead.

Double bottom

1. Something to turn back from. A reversal needs a move to reverse. Price has climbed to a new extreme for this stretch of candles, so there is a high that later candles can test.
2. The first attempt fails. Price turned back up from its low and has pulled away from it. One turn is not a pattern: it only marks a level that later candles may test again.
3. Back at the same level. Price has returned to its earlier low. Roughly equal means within a tolerance scaled to the market's recent candle range, not an exact match.
4. The shape is confirmed. Later candles have not taken out the low, so the second hold is confirmed and the alert can report the shape. The marked level between the two lows is where the idea stops working.
5. What happened next. Price moves up in this hypothetical case. That was not known when the shape completed. A close back below both lows would have weakened the idea instead.

Triple top

1. Something to turn back from. A reversal needs a move to reverse. Price has climbed to a new extreme for this stretch of candles, so there is a high that later candles can test.
2. The first attempt fails. Price turned back down from its high and has pulled away from it. One turn is not a pattern: it only marks a level that later candles may test again.
3. Back at the same level. Price has returned to its earlier high. Roughly equal means within a tolerance scaled to the market's recent candle range, not an exact match.
4. The shape is confirmed. Later candles have not exceeded the high, so the second rejection is confirmed and the alert can report the shape. The marked level between the two highs is where the idea stops working.
5. What happened next. Price falls in this hypothetical case. That was not known when the shape completed. A close back above both highs would have weakened the idea instead.

The level gives way

1. Something to turn back from. A reversal needs a move to reverse. Price has climbed to a new extreme for this stretch of candles, so there is a high that later candles can test.
2. The first attempt fails. Price turned back down from its high and has pulled away from it. One turn is not a pattern: it only marks a level that later candles may test again.
3. The level is exceeded. Price closes well beyond the earlier high instead of turning back. There are no longer two roughly equal highs, so nothing is reported. The same first attempt can end either way.
4. A different market now. Price keeps rising. Watch the new extreme instead: the pattern alerts describe attempts that failed, and this one did not.
5. Compare the two outcomes. Switch scenarios to see the same first attempt become a completed shape. Neither outcome was knowable at the first turn.

Compare Double top with The level gives way: both begin with the same candles and the same first turn. Only later candles separate them, and the alert exists for the case where the level held.

See the product example

Inside CoinScreenerDouble Top · 4h

Inside CoinScreener

Double Top · 4h

Sources

Product behavior checked against V3 source on 10 September 2026. Screenshots retain their original capture dates.

TradingView: Double Top and Double Bottom