Chart Pattern Quiz: Can You Call the Next Move?
Reading a chart is a skill you build by calling the move and checking the result — over and over. This quiz gives you ten setups. For each one, decide whether the next move is more likely buy (up) or sell (down), commit to your answer out loud, then open the reveal to see the pattern and the reasoning.
No score screen, no login — just the honest decision-feedback loop that actually trains chart reading. Keep a tally and see how many of the ten you get right.
The quiz
1. Price rallies hard, then drifts sideways-down in a tight, orderly channel on falling volume. Buy or sell?
Answer: Buy. This is a bull flag — a sharp advance (the pole) followed by a shallow, controlled pullback (the flag). The falling volume during the drift signals profit-taking, not a reversal. The odds favor a continuation break to the upside.
2. An uptrend prints a high, pulls back, makes a higher high, pulls back, then makes a lower high that stalls at the same level as the first. Buy or sell?
Answer: Sell. A center peak flanked by two lower peaks is a head and shoulders top — a classic reversal. Once price breaks the neckline connecting the pullback lows, the uptrend is likely over.
3. Price falls to a level, bounces, falls back to almost exactly the same level, and bounces again. Buy or sell?
Answer: Buy. Two touches of the same floor is a double bottom — buyers defended the level twice. A break above the middle peak confirms the reversal higher.
4. In a strong downtrend, a single candle opens and closes at nearly the same price with long wicks on both sides. Buy, sell, or wait?
Answer: Wait. That's a doji — indecision, not direction. By itself it signals the trend is losing steam, but you need the next candle to confirm before acting.
5. Price grinds higher against a flat ceiling, with each dip bottoming a little higher than the last. Buy or sell?
Answer: Buy. A flat top with rising lows is an ascending triangle — demand is absorbing supply at the ceiling. The higher-probability break is upward through resistance.
6. After a long uptrend, price makes a rounded top and rolls over slowly, with momentum quietly fading the whole way up. Buy or sell?
Answer: Sell. A rounding top (and the fading momentum) shows buyers gradually exhausting. The slow roll-over favors the downside.
7. A downtrend prints a small-bodied candle, then a large green candle that completely engulfs the prior candle's body. Buy or sell?
Answer: Buy. That's a bullish engulfing pattern — buyers overwhelmed sellers in a single session. At the bottom of a move, it's a strong reversal signal.
8. Price consolidates in a symmetrical triangle after a strong down move, coiling tighter and tighter. Buy or sell?
Answer: Sell (lean with the prior trend). A symmetrical triangle is usually a continuation. After a down move, the base case is a downside break — though you always wait for the actual break to confirm.
9. Price forms a rounded bottom, then a small dip and recovery just to the right of the low. Buy or sell?
Answer: Buy. A rounded base with a small handle is a cup and handle — accumulation followed by a final shakeout. The break above the rim is a bullish continuation.
10. At the top of a rally, price prints a candle with a tiny body and a long upper wick. Buy or sell?
Answer: Sell. A long upper wick and small body at a high is a shooting star — buyers pushed up but got rejected hard. It warns the rally is running out of room.
How did you score?
- 8–10 correct: Strong pattern eye. You're ready to sharpen speed and consistency under time pressure.
- 5–7 correct: Solid foundation — you know the shapes but need more reps to make recognition automatic.
- 0–4 correct: Perfect starting point. The fastest fix is volume: dozens of setups a day with instant feedback.
Ten questions is a warm-up. Real recognition comes from hundreds of reps — which is exactly why we built the quiz loop into an app you can run for five minutes a day.
Turn the quiz into a daily habit
Chart Guess is the same read-it, call-it, reveal-it loop — with a fresh chart every round, instant feedback, and 53 patterns. Free on iOS and Android.