Bulkowski's Duke Energy Trading Quiz

What chart patterns can you find? Look for the following (if you find others, great!): rising wedge, symmetrical triangle, ascending scallop, Eve & Adam double bottom, Big W

The rising wedge has broken out downward on exceptionally high volume after a quarterly earnings release.

Answer 1 (buy?): Since the breakout is downward, consider shorting the stock, but recognize that in 5 to 10 days, the stock may resume climbing (with a big earnings miss, the stock just drops and drops. With small misses, it'll plummet and recover, and that's what we see here).

Answer 2 (target?): The rising wedge target is usually the start of the wedge (the bottom). In this case, the top of the symmetrical would be a good target (because it has two tops near the same price), I think. Call it 26.07, which is above the round number support of 26.

Answer 3 (stop?): If price rises above the recent congestion, then close out the short position. I show the congestion area circled in green, say 29.54.

Price formed a three rising valleys chart pattern in the process of curling around the end of the wedge (see the three Vs). Price closed above the top of the pattern meaning that if you shorted the stock you probably lost money.

Is the behavior of the wedge surprising? Not really. In a bull market, 19% of the rising wedges saw price drop less than 5%. Almost a third (32%) saw price drop less than 10%)