Ten hidden real crypto charts, each ending on the candle that confirmed a pattern. Name the pattern, decide whether to take the textbook trade, then watch the next ten days of real 4-hour candles.
Point at a candle to read it.
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The CFTC glossary describes a head and shoulders as "a chart formation that resembles a human head and shoulders and is generally considered to be predictive of a price reversal." This quiz shows you such formations on real charts. Each round has ten hidden charts of bitcoin, ether, solana, XRP or dogecoin since 2021, drawn from 213 patterns. Every chart stops at the 4-hour candle that confirmed its pattern.
Books and traders define these patterns in slightly different ways. The quiz uses one fixed set of rules on every chart. A swing high counts once the price falls 2.5 times the average true range below it (the typical size of one candle, over 14 candles), and a swing low the other way. Then:
Every pattern must be confirmed within 45 candles, before the price moves past the far side of the pattern.
We ran the textbook trade on every pattern the rules found in the real 4-hour candles of the five markets, from July 2021 to September 2026, with the same costs as the quiz. The result is in R, the amount risked: +1R made the $100 at risk, -1R lost it.
| Pattern | Found | Target first | Stop first | Neither in 10 days | Average result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Head and shoulders | 11 | 36% | 27% | 36% | +0.14R |
| Inverse head and shoulders | 16 | 56% | 31% | 13% | +0.48R |
| Double top | 51 | 53% | 31% | 16% | +0.02R |
| Double bottom | 64 | 52% | 23% | 25% | +0.02R |
| Ascending triangle | 43 | 33% | 51% | 16% | +0.07R |
| Descending triangle | 28 | 21% | 29% | 50% | +0.06R |
| All patterns | 213 | 44% | 32% | 24% | +0.08R |
Across all 213 patterns the target came first 44% of the time and the average trade made +0.08R after costs, a thin result from a small sample. The rows differ a lot: ascending triangles hit the stop first in more than half of the cases, and descending triangles often reached neither level in ten days. There were only 11 head and shoulders tops and 16 inverse ones, too few to judge.
The CFTC glossary adds a caution about the whole approach: "Technical analysis can work consistently only if the theory that price movements are a random walk is incorrect." Treat a pattern as a reason to plan a trade with a stop, not as a forecast.
The candlestick patterns game drills one- to three-candle signals, the support and resistance practice game has you mark levels yourself, and the stop loss simulator tests where to put the stop. The risk/reward ratio calculator shows the win rate a target needs.
Educational, not financial advice. The quiz replays past prices with play money. Chart patterns can fail, and past results do not predict future ones.
A game that shows you a price chart and asks you to name the pattern on it. This one uses hidden real crypto charts that end on the candle that confirmed the pattern, then shows what the price did over the next ten days.
Six classic reversal and breakout patterns: head and shoulders, inverse head and shoulders, double top, double bottom, ascending triangle and descending triangle.
Yes. Every candle is a real Bybit spot 4-hour candle of bitcoin, ether, solana, XRP or dogecoin since 2021, downloaded with the ccxt library. The market and the date appear after each answer.
By fixed rules applied to every chart: swings of at least 2.5 times the average true range, price limits for each pattern, and a close past the neckline or breakout level within 45 candles. The rules are listed on this page.
On these charts, weakly. The textbook trade on all 213 patterns averaged +0.08R after costs, and 52% of trades made money. Some pattern types did worse than others, and the samples are small.
Candlestick patterns are made of one to three candles, like a hammer or a doji. Chart patterns such as a double top take days or weeks to form and are read from the swings of many candles.