A symmetrical triangle forms when price makes lower highs and higher lows at the same time, converging toward a point. Unlike the directional triangles, it has a neutral bias on its own: both sides are compressing, and the market is coiling energy without yet revealing which way it will release.
How to read it
Because the bias is neutral, the dominant clue is context: a symmetrical triangle inside a strong trend usually continues that trend, while one at a major turning point can go either way. Volume contracts as the triangle matures — the coil tightening — and expands on the break. The apex (where the lines meet) is a rough deadline: triangles tend to resolve before price reaches it.
Trading the break
Wait for a decisive close beyond one of the trend lines on rising volume. A common trap is the false break — a poke beyond a line that fails — so the retest of the broken line from the other side often gives a cleaner, lower-risk entry than the initial break. The measured target projects the triangle's widest height from the breakout.