Definitions
In plain terms
It differs from a triple bottom because the middle low must dominate downward rather than merely match the shoulders.
Technical
The selected five-pivot sequence is low-high-low-high-low; outer shoulders are comparable, inverse head dominance >= 0.05, retracements and prior decline pass, then close crosses above the projected peak neckline.
Scope
Inverse head and shoulders is a detector contract, not a guaranteed rally or performance claim.
Formula
comparable outer lows, dominant lower middle head, two peak anchors, and strict upside breakL-H-L-H-L,\quad d=\frac{\bar p-h}{\bar p}\ge0.05,\quad C_t>N_t| Symbol | Meaning | Unit |
|---|---|---|
h | head low | price |
N_t | projected neckline | price |
Output unit: pattern state
Examples
- A reviewer computes Inverse Head and Shoulders on a deterministic close fixture and checks pivot timing, threshold equality, neckline behavior, and rejection diagnostics before publication.
Common misconceptions
- Inverse head and shoulders is a detector contract, not a guaranteed rally or performance claim.
Concept relationships
Related
Required by
Where this concept is used
Evidence and governance
- Head and Shoulders: Not Just a Flaky Pattern Federal Reserve Bank of New York · official standard
Supports: preferred label, short definition, technical definition, formula
Limits: Its historical sample and performance results are not transferred to this detector or current markets.
- Foundations of Technical Analysis: Computational Algorithms, Statistical Inference, and Empirical Implementation Lo, Mamaysky, and Wang · first party technical publication
Supports: preferred label, short definition, technical definition, formula
Limits: The paper's smoothing, sample, and empirical design are not copied into this package and do not validate its thresholds.
- Pine Script repainting concepts TradingView · official platform documentation
Supports: preferred label, short definition, technical definition, formula
Limits: Platform display behavior does not establish financial usefulness or predictive value.
- scipy.signal.find_peaks SciPy · first party technical publication
Supports: preferred label, short definition, technical definition, formula
Limits: This retrospective signal function is not itself a causal OHLC pivot detector.
- Pine Script pivot techniques TradingView · official platform documentation
Supports: preferred label, short definition, technical definition, formula
Limits: The package freezes its own equality, separation, and OHLC policies rather than claiming one universal pivot definition.
- Reviewed by
- fintech-builder-batch-012
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-10
- Next review
- 2027-08-10
- Record status
- evidence reviewed
This record is evidence-reviewed and readable, but not yet promoted to published — it is served noindex,follow and excluded from the sitemap.
