Not every converging shape has a directional bias. Learning which ones do — and which are just volatility compressing — separates pattern recognition from pattern superstition.
Symmetrical triangle: no implied direction
Both boundaries slope toward each other at roughly similar angles. This is a volatility squeeze, not a forecast. It tells you a move is coming, and it tells you roughly when: somewhere between two-thirds and three-quarters of the way to the apex. It does not tell you which way.
Trade it by waiting for the break and going with it, not by guessing. The invalidation is a close back inside the triangle on the other side.
Rising wedge: biased down
Both lines rise, but they converge — the lows rise faster than the highs. Each new high is a smaller gain than the last, which is the signature of momentum fading even while price still makes new highs.
These most often break downward, and when they do the move can be sharp because everyone who bought the rising lows is wrong at once.
Falling wedge: biased up
The mirror: both lines fall, converging, with each new low a smaller loss than the last. Selling pressure is drying up. These most often break upward.
Why wedges have a bias and triangles do not
Because a wedge is sloping against the direction of the larger move. A rising wedge in an uptrend means the trend is still making higher highs but with diminishing force — the advance is running out of fuel. A symmetrical triangle has no such internal contradiction; the two sides are simply meeting.
That distinction is worth more than memorising which shape is bullish.
How to check this yourself
On a wedge, measure each successive push and write down whether it is larger or smaller than the one before. That simple list is the whole signal. If the pushes are not shrinking, you do not have a wedge — you have a channel, and the reversal bias does not apply.