Pattern Trading for Beginners
Read the shapes markets leave behind — head and shoulders, doubles, triangles, wedges and flags — and know which ones are worth trading and which are just noise with a name.
About this course
Every chart pattern is a record of the same argument: buyers pushing up, sellers pushing down, and one side eventually giving up. Once you can see that argument, the dozens of named patterns stop being a list to memorise and become a handful of shapes you can actually find on a live chart. This course takes you from the two lines every pattern is built from — support and resistance — through reversal and continuation structures, to placing an entry, a stop and a target on a pattern you have identified yourself. It also covers the part most pattern books skip: how often these fail, why a measured move is a convention rather than a forecast, and what to do when a breakout comes straight back at you.
What you'll be able to do
- Draw support, resistance and trendlines the way the market actually respects them — as zones, not exact prices
- Identify head and shoulders, double tops and bottoms, and rounding bases on a live chart
- Tell reversal patterns apart from continuation patterns, and know why the difference matters
- Place an entry, a stop and a target on any pattern before you risk money on it
- Recognise a false breakout early enough that it costs you a stopped trade instead of an account
Prerequisites
- No programming required — you will need a chart, a pencil, and the patience to wait for confirmation
- You should know what a candlestick is; the Candlestick Charting course covers it if not
- A demo account is genuinely useful here — patterns are visual, and you learn them by marking charts
Learning path
4 parts · 14 lessons · every lesson ends with a practical check you can do with a chart, your broker's contract spec, or a public data source — no programming required.
What a pattern actually isWhat a pattern actually is
Before memorising shapes: the two lines every pattern is made from, and the two questions every pattern asks.
4 done
What a pattern actually is
Before memorising shapes: the two lines every pattern is made from, and the two questions every pattern asks.
- 01Beginner7 min
What a chart pattern actually is
A pattern is not a prediction. It is a record of where buyers and sellers have repeatedly changed their minds.
- 02Beginner8 min
Support and resistance: the raw material
Every pattern in this course is built from two horizontal zones. Get these wrong and nothing else works.
- 03Beginner8 min
Trendlines and channels
Two touches make a line, three make it worth watching. A line you have to force through the candles is not a trendline.
- 04Beginner7 min
The two questions every pattern asks
Where does it resolve, and at what price am I provably wrong? If you cannot answer both, you do not have a trade.
Reversal patternsReversal patterns
Structures that appear when a trend runs out of participants: head and shoulders, doubles, and slow rounding bases.
4 done
Reversal patterns
Structures that appear when a trend runs out of participants: head and shoulders, doubles, and slow rounding bases.
- 01Beginner9 min
Head and shoulders
Three peaks, the middle one highest, and a neckline that has to break. Until it breaks, it is just three bumps.
- 02Beginner7 min
Inverse head and shoulders
The same structure upside down, and the same rule: nothing happens until the neckline breaks.
- 03Beginner9 min
Double tops and double bottoms
The "M" and the "W": two failures at the same level, with the middle swing acting as the neckline.
- 04Intermediate8 min
Rounding bases and the cup and handle
The slow ones. No dramatic reversal candle, just a market that quietly stops falling.
Continuation patternsContinuation patterns
Shapes that appear mid-trend while the market catches its breath: triangles, wedges, flags and rectangles.
3 done
Continuation patterns
Shapes that appear mid-trend while the market catches its breath: triangles, wedges, flags and rectangles.
- 01Beginner9 min
Ascending and descending triangles
One flat line, one sloping line. The flat side tells you who is defending; the slope tells you who is being squeezed.
- 02Intermediate9 min
Symmetrical triangles and wedges
Converging lines with no built-in direction, plus the two wedges whose slope quietly signals exhaustion.
- 03Beginner8 min
Flags, pennants and rectangles
The short pauses. A flag that lasts as long as the move it interrupted is not a flag.
Trading themTrading them
Turning a shape into a trade: where to enter, where you are wrong, how far to aim, and what to do when it fails.
3 done
Trading them
Turning a shape into a trade: where to enter, where you are wrong, how far to aim, and what to do when it fails.
- 01Intermediate8 min
Measured moves and targets
Projecting the pattern height is a convention, not physics. Here is how to use it without believing it.
- 02Intermediate9 min
False breakouts and failed patterns
The most common way pattern traders lose money. The breakout is the trigger; the close is the confirmation.
- 03Intermediate10 min
Putting it together: a pattern trading plan
Three prices decided in advance, a size that follows from them, and a written rule for when the pattern fails.
Ready to start?
Jump into lesson 1 — What a chart pattern actually is. No programming required.
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