Double Bottom Pattern: A Traders Guide

Ariel Courage is an experienced editor, researcher, and former fact-checker. She has performed editing and fact-checking double bottom pattern work for several leading finance publications, including The Motley Fool and Passport to Wall Street.

Often, the stock will give a throwback to the breakout level after the breakout. Marking the beginning of a potential future uptrend, a double bottom pattern is a bearish-to–bullish price reversal that signals a continuous downtrend has bottomed out. It shows that the price is about to rise again, which describes a change in a previous trend and a momentum reversal from the most recent leading price. A double bottom pattern is the opposite of a double top, which suggests a bullish-to-bearish trend reversal. The second low of the pattern is within 3% to 4% of the prior low, contributing to the validity of the pattern.

1. Please be aware of the risk’s involved in trading & seek independent advice, if necessary.
2. As its name implies, the pattern is made up of two consecutive troughs that are roughly equal, with a moderate peak in-between.
3. When you trade the Double Bottom, you must pay attention to the time and space between the lows — the larger the “gap”, the better.
4. Though this pattern is not as common as the cup with handle, it still occurs quite frequently.

The chart below is a visualization, an example of when to buy, place a stop-loss order, and profit targets. Harness past market data to forecast price direction and anticipate market moves. Sometimes, the market might not re-test the level you’re looking at. When you trade the Double Bottom, you must pay attention to the time and space between the lows — the larger the “gap”, the better.

Double Bottom Patterns: Main Talking Points:

Otherwise, you risk being caught in a range without the market going anywhere. Double bottom is a classic setup that is frequent and has a high winning rate. After the expected length was achieved, the https://1investing.in/ market stalled in one way or another. Above is the kind of over 70% win-rate patterns we discussed before. The market broke above the 50-day MA and completed the double bottom not long afterward.

Double Bottom Pattern Explained Trading & Technical Analysis

We have covered how you can take advantage of this in an article called night trading strategies. Although traders can incur losses, a failed double bottom pattern can also offer unique trading opportunities. For example, suppose a false breakout is identified at the right time – in that case, one can prepare to trade in the opposite direction, and go short instead. Then, it forms a swing low – when the price is lower than any other prices over a given time, for example, the lowest price in the recent week. At this moment, it’s likely just a retracement in a downtrend, not an indication of a price trend reversal. Conservative traders would wait for the price to break above the neckline which acts as a resistance level.

As with any other chart patterns used in technical analysis, a double bottom pattern is not guaranteed to succeed and is always up for individual interpretation. It takes practice to learn how to trade a double bottom pattern, as not every price pattern that forms will succeed. When a double top pattern forms, the second top is usually slightly below the first peak, which indicates market exhaustion. When trading a double top pattern, traders would take a short position instead of a long position, as the prices are expected to start decreasing and showing signs of a downtrend. A double bottom is suggestive of a change in direction higher and possibly the start of a new uptrend. To put it in buyers/sellers terms, the sellers have created a downtrend that came to a low point (support), which led to a rebound or short-covering.

How to identify a double bottom pattern on a stock chart?

The failed breakouts are usually followed by a sharp move lower to punish the buyers for failing to finalize the initial move higher. However, the buyers regrouped at lower prices, and launched another strong push higher to ultimately break above the neckline around the $1.31 handle. Hence, our entry is at $1.3110, a level where the USD/CAD closed above the neckline for the first time.

Although each pattern had formed for a couple of weeks, the prices are still far below the 50-day Moving Average (blue line). In this case, if you look for a major reversal, a two-day double bottom is not bullish. The pattern consists of a downtrend, followed by two swings, testing the same price area. It is important for the second bottom to undercut the low of the first.

Volume indicators such as Chaikin Money Flow, OBV and Accumulation/Distribution can be used to look for signs of buying pressure. Just as with the double top, it is paramount to wait for the resistance breakout. The formation is not complete until the previous reaction high is taken out.

However, this proved to be a failed breakout as the price quickly returned below the neckline. This perfectly shows how important the virtue of patience is in trading. Moreover, this also shows why it is important to wait for a close above the neckline before entering the market.

How do you trade a double bottom pattern?

The stronger the downtrend, the lengthier the setup should be to reverse it. For such a reversal, the pattern needs to form for a considerable time. First, you should define where the setup stands in relation to the recent price action. We can talk a lot about the “what, why, and when” of the double bottom pattern. Every speech, meeting, or economic data has the potential to screw up a beautiful technical pattern.

A double bottom pattern is one of the more commonly used chart patterns in technical analysis. The double bottom pattern always follows a major or minor down trend in a particular security, and signals a reversal and the beginning of a potential uptrend. The fundamentals should reflect the characteristics of an upcoming reversal in market conditions. Also, volume should be closely monitored during the formation of the pattern. A spike in volume typically occurs during the two upward price movements in the pattern.

If it does not, the weaker investors may not get shaken out, and you will be left with a more failure-prone «almost» double bottom formation. If you see a chart with these characteristics, you have recognized a double bottom pattern. With the double top, we would place our entry order below the neckline because we are anticipating a reversal of the uptrend.

Trade up today – join thousands of traders who choose a mobile-first broker. Double top and bottom formations are highly effective when identified correctly. Just founded another pattern to try, thanks for posting lots of lessons for us who just started trading. You can have two identical Double Bottom pattern, but one has a high probability of reversal, and the other is likely to fail. Because you don’t have a logical place to set your stop loss, and you’ll likely get stopped out on the pullback or reversal. So, whatever trading tactics you use, make sure you know how to manage risk well.