Individual candles describe single periods; chart patterns are multi-candle structures that form over days or weeks as the crowd fights over a level. They repeat because the psychology that builds them — hope, trapped positions, exhaustion — repeats. Thomas Bulkowski's Encyclopedia of Chart Patterns catalogued thousands of samples and attached failure rates to each; the honest summary of his work is that patterns tilt odds rather than guarantee outcomes, and volume decides which ones deserve trust.
Three peaks — a higher middle one (the head) between two lower ones (the shoulders) — with a neckline connecting the lows between them. It is a picture of a failing uptrend: the third rally cannot even match the second. The pattern completes only when price closes below the neckline; everything before that is anticipation. The inverted version marks bottoms. Classic target: the head-to-neckline distance, projected down from the break.
Price hits the same level twice and fails both times — the market's way of drawing its own resistance (or support). The second touch typically comes on weaker volume: fewer believers the second time. Completion is the break of the middle trough (or peak). Beware: what looks like a double top is often just a range until that break actually happens.
A steep, near-vertical move (the pole), then a few candles of tight drift against the trend (the flag). It reads as the market catching its breath, and it is one of the most reliable continuation structures in crypto, where momentum moves come in bursts. Target: the length of the pole, projected from the breakout.
Patterns are crowd psychology drawn on a chart: reversals show conviction failing, continuations show it resting. Trade the completed break with volume behind it and a stop where the pattern is invalidated — and let the risk/reward do the heavy lifting.