Pennant Pattern

A pennant pattern is a short pause after a sharp price move in which the highs fall and the lows rise, forming a small triangle at the end of a pole.

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Last updated 27 October 2026

A pennant pattern is a short pause after a sharp price move, in which the highs step down and the lows step up so that the pause forms a small triangle. The sharp move before it is called the pole. Traders class it as a continuation pattern.

They look for the pole's move to resume once a candle closes outside the triangle in the pole's direction.

How is a pennant different from a flag or a triangle?

A pennant has converging boundary lines after a sharp pole, a flag has parallel lines after a pole, and a symmetrical triangle converges without needing a pole. A pennant is also short, while a triangle often runs longer; a wedge converges too, but with both lines sloping the same way. The table compares the three shapes.

Shape Boundary lines Comes after Typical length
Pennant Converging A sharp pole Short
Bull flag or bear flag Parallel, sloping against the pole A sharp pole Short
Symmetrical triangle Converging Any trend or range; no pole needed Often longer

So a pennant is, in effect, a small symmetrical triangle that follows a pole. The chart continuation patterns lesson compares all of them side by side.

A sharp rise forms the pole, then price swings in a small triangle with falling highs and rising lows between two converging dashed lines, then closes above the upper line
A pennant is a small converging triangle after a sharp pole; the break comes on a close outside it.

Worked example: pennant pattern on GBPUSD

GBPUSD rises from 1.2600 to 1.2690, a 90-pip pole. Over the next candles the highs fall (1.2690, 1.2684, 1.2678) and the lows rise (1.2660, 1.2666, 1.2671). A candle then closes at 1.2685, above the upper line.

Step Calculation Result
Pole height 1.2690 − 1.2600 90 pips
Breakout close Above the upper line 1.2685
Conventional measured move 1.2685 + 0.0090 1.2775

Traders use the measured move as a profit target. At 0.10 lot of GBPUSD, about $1 per pip, a buy at 1.2685 gains about $90 if price reaches 1.2775; with the stop below the pennant's last low at 1.2671, a fall to the stop loses about $14.

What confirms a pennant breakout?

A pennant breakout is confirmed when a candle closes outside the triangle in the pole's direction, after a short pause of only a handful of candles. Many traders also want a retest of the broken line before they act. The three checks are below.

How do you draw a pennant in MetaTrader 5?

MetaTrader 5 does not label pennants, so you draw one yourself with two trend lines: one across the falling highs and one across the rising lows. Both are trend lines from the analytical objects on the Insert menu, and the shape counts as a pennant only where they converge after a sharp pole.

What do traders often get wrong about pennants?

The common mistake is calling any small triangle a pennant, when a pennant needs a sharp pole before the converging pause. Without the pole, the same converging shape is a symmetrical triangle, and the triangle pattern page covers how that shape is read and traded.

Sources

Learn it properly in the full lesson: Flag Pattern: Bull and Bear Flags, Pennants and Triangles

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