Pipe Bottoms Indicator Based on Thomas Bulkowski's Theories

15 Nov 2020

Pipe bottom is a great indicator of short-term bullish reversal trading. Pipe bottoms appear as 2 "spikes" on the chart after a 2 weeks price drop downtrend, which look like 2 parallel lines on the chart. Based on Bulkowski and the definition on his Patternsite, those 2 "spikes" candles can be any shape, whether doji or any other kinds, thus, wicks length or candle bodies are NOT required in this type of trends. However, a wide price range for these 2 spikes compared to other candles that appeared in 2 weeks is required, so I made sure these 2 pipe bottoms have true ranges (candle length) bigger than the average true ranges in the past 10 trading days (14 calendar days).

Then, a large price overlap must be between these 2 pipe bottoms, so I made sure that the high of either candle of the 2 pipe bottoms must be bigger than 40% of the true range added from the low of another candle, which in short, means that the high of the lower candle will at least be around the middle of the higher candle, and that will ensure price overlap. You can make this 50%, 60% or even 70% of the true range to ensure even greater price overlap, but you will find out that the signal amounts will decrease quite a lot after adjusting.

Bulkowski also suggested 1% variation of the bottom price (low) of those 2 candles, I put it 5% (0.05) personally to get more signals since I do not solely rely on this indicator, and I want more pipe bottoms to show up on my chart for screening purposes. So, feel free to adjust that number for the identification of this pattern.

Finally, the way I ensure it has been a downtrend or price drop is by checking if the price today is below the average of the last 10 trading days (14 calendar days), the price of the pipe bottoms must be below the moving averages of the past 10 trading days. I use hl2 here, feel free to change it to close or open as fit your strategy. Also, you can do this by making sure the candle close prices are decreasing in the past 10 trading days, or any other ways to ensure it's been in a downtrend, but for me, this works fine since again, this is just one of the many patterns I use, so I want more indicators to show up.

So, as you can see on the chart. Whenever the pattern fits the indicator, a small white cross will show up under the candle with "Pipe" text next to it. But do NOT rush to buy yet, because in order to satisfy the pipe bottom pattern, the current close price must be higher than the high of the pipe bottom. And you will see green arrowups when a pipe bottom occurred the last candle, and the current close price is above the high of the pipe bottoms, that would be the entry point of this indicator.

Overall it's a good pattern, especially for a trading bullish reversal after a huge price drop. You can adjust many numbers as I mentioned above to fit your needs, but make sure to add this with other indicators for your strategy, using only 1 indicator or pattern along is never a wise thing, especially in trading. Thanks guys, please like and share.