Triangles

Symmetrical Triangle

A symmetrical triangle is a chart formation where the slope of the price's highs and the slope of the price's lows converge together to a point where it looks like a triangle.
What's happening during this formation is that the market is making lower highs and higher lows. This means that neither the buyers nor the sellers are pushing the price far enough to make a clear trend.
If this were a battle between the buyers and sellers, then this would be a draw.
This is also a type of consolidation.

In the chart above, we can see that neither the buyers nor the sellers could push the price in their direction. When this happens we get lower highs and higher lows.
As these two slopes get closer to each other, it means that a breakout is getting near. We don't know what direction the breakout will be, but we do know that the market will most likely break out. Eventually, one side of the market will give in.
So how can we take advantage of this?

Simple.
We can place entry orders above the slope of the lower highs and below the slope of the higher lows. Since we already know that the price is going to break out, we can just hitch a ride in whatever direction the market moves.