A double bottom is the mirror of the double top: after a downtrend, price makes a low, bounces, returns to the same level — and holds again. The "W" shape records sellers throwing their weight at a price twice and failing twice. When the bounce high between the lows (the neckline) breaks, the base is complete and a new uptrend has its foundation.

Identification rules

1. A prior downtrend — bases end declines; a "W" inside a bull trend is just a pullback
2. Two lows in the same zone (within ~1–2%). The strongest variant: low 2 wicks below low 1 and closes back above — a stop sweep of the obvious low that instantly fails, trapping breakdown sellers (the CRT/ICT read of the same event)
3. A real bounce between the lows — a substantial move, not a pause
4. Confirmation: a candle close above the neckline. Before that, you have a support test, not a pattern

Reversal candles at low 2 — a hammer, bullish engulfing or morning star — substantially upgrade the setup.

How to trade it

• Standard entry: long on the close above the neckline; stop below low 2
• Retest entry: wait for the pullback to the broken neckline (now support) and buy the rejection there; tighter stop below the retest low, better R:R, at the cost of missing runaway breaks
• Aggressive entry: buy at low 2 itself on the sweep-and-reclaim with a reversal candle; stop below the sweep wick — best price, most ways to be wrong
• Target: the measured move — the pattern's height projected up from the neckline; partials there, trail the remainder under new higher lows

Why it works

Low 1 proves demand exists at the price. The retest is the market auditing that demand with every remaining seller — and when the audit passes, the supply overhead is spent. Breakdown traders who shorted low 2 (especially in the sweep variant) are trapped below; their covering plus fresh breakout buying powers the neckline break. Bases are where positions change hands from weak to strong — the W is just that process drawn on a chart.

The failure mode

In relentless downtrends, "double bottoms" are printed and destroyed repeatedly — every support eventually breaks in a bear market. Protections: demand the confirmation close, prefer patterns forming at higher-timeframe support, and honor the invalidation — a close below low 2 ends the discussion. As with its mirror, the failed pattern is itself information: confirmed breakdown of a watched base falls hard.

Practice it

In chart replay, work through random downtrends and log every second test of a low as it happens: swept or held? Reversal candle present? Confirmed later or broken? Fifty examples via the backtesting method will give you the two numbers that matter — how often unconfirmed W's fail, and how much the sweep variant outperforms — for your market, from your own data.

FAQ

How reliable is a double bottom?

Confirmed, at meaningful support, after an extended decline — among the better reversal patterns, with measured targets reached in a clear majority of textbook cases. The unconfirmed version is just a support test with branding.

Should low 2 be higher or lower than low 1?

Either is acceptable within the zone. Slightly lower with a fast reclaim (the sweep) is the strongest signal; clearly higher turns the structure into a higher-low uptrend beginning — also bullish, traded as structure rather than as this pattern.

How long should a double bottom take to form?

Proportional to the trend it's reversing — on a daily chart, typically weeks between lows. Two adjacent candles tapping the same price is a support touch, not a base.