Inverse Head and Shoulders Pattern

How to identify an inverse head and shoulders pattern

• A prior downtrend. Without one there is nothing to reverse, and the shape is just noise inside a range.
• Left shoulder: a low, followed by a bounce.
• Head: a lower low, followed by a bounce back to roughly the same area as the first.
• Right shoulder: a higher low than the head, roughly level with the left shoulder.
• Neckline: the line through the two bounce highs. It can slope; a flat or rising neckline is generally read as the stronger version.

Is an inverse head and shoulders pattern bullish or bearish?

Bullish. It is the mirror image of the head and shoulders top, and it shows sellers failing to push price to a new low on the third attempt. The pattern is only complete on a close above the neckline — until then it is a possible pattern, not a confirmed one. Volume that expands on the breakout is commonly treated as confirmation.

Price target

The textbook measured move takes the vertical distance from the head's low to the neckline and projects it upward from the breakout point. Treat it as a reference level, not a forecast: many breakouts stall short of it, and some retest the neckline first.

When the pattern fails

A failed inverse head and shoulders breaks above the neckline and then closes back below it, or drops under the right shoulder's low. That invalidates the reversal reading, and the failure itself is often taken as a sign the downtrend is still in control. It is why the record on this page scores every detection, including the ones that did not work.

How has this setup performed historically?

20-day figures: 171 settled signals detected from 2026-02-11, scored through 2026-10-29; 41 more still inside the window. Every one is listed in the track record.

Win rate = share of occurrences where the stock beat SPY over the window in the direction the signal predicted — for a bearish setup, a win means it underperformed. Measured on our own detections, which puts the coin-flip line at 50%. Sample sizes are small; treat these as context, not as an edge.

Recent Inverse Head and Shoulders detections

From our daily published list over the past 12 months, newest first. Past detections, not recommendations — open a symbol for its chart and current status.

US stocks that have formed the Inverse Head and Shoulders most often

Counts are past detections by our scanner, not signals firing today. Follow a symbol through to its own page for the current reading.

Frequently asked questions

What does an inverse head and shoulders mean?

That a downtrend made three lows, the middle one deepest, and sellers could not extend it. Buyers stepping in at a higher low — the right shoulder — is what the pattern is read as showing.

What is the difference between head and shoulders and inverse head and shoulders?

Orientation and direction. A head and shoulders top forms after an advance, has three peaks and is bearish; the inverse version forms after a decline, has three troughs and is bullish. Both are confirmed by a break of the neckline.

Can an inverse head and shoulders be a continuation pattern?

The shape sometimes appears mid-uptrend, after a pullback, and resolves upward. Classical technical analysis still treats it primarily as a reversal pattern.

What is the success rate of an inverse head and shoulders pattern?

Across 171 scored detections, the Inverse Head and Shoulders moved the way it predicts relative to SPY 46% of the time over the next 20 trading days, with a mean excess return of +0.66%. A coin flip scores about 50%.

Further reading

• Guide: how the Inverse Head and Shoulders works
• Backtest: we tested 1,643 of our own pattern calls against SPY
• Browse every symbol we cover

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