Bulkowski’s Roof

ThePatternSite.com logo

Home
About
Bookstore
Contact
Glossary
Links
Search
Site Map

Click on my books below to take you to Amazon.com They pay for the referral on most items and that helps pay for the cost of this site.

Makes a great gift

The roof pattern is one I discovered in early 2005. I thought of it as a half diamond but a friend called it a roof pattern and that’s more descriptive. I found 203 roofs in 500 stocks from July 1991 to July 1996. That’s one pattern for every 12 years of data, which makes it a rare one indeed. Since it’s performance is dreadful, it’s not one you should concern yourself with.

Roof chart pattern
Roof chart pattern

Important Bull Market Results

Overall rank: 17 out of 21
Break even failure rate: 13%
Average decline: 16%
Pullback rate: 56%
Percentage meeting price target: 68%

Identification Guidelines

Characteristic Discussion
Daily or weekly chart Use the daily or weekly chart to locate roof patterns.
Price trend Usually upward leading to the pattern.
Shape Has a horizontal or near horizontal bottom with up sloping trend in the first part of the pattern followed by a down-sloping trend in the last part of the pattern.
Uptrend The best performing roof patterns appear after a sharp rise like you sometimes see in diamond patterns
Symmetrical The two halves of the roof should appear symmetrical. Allow variations, but most look like an inverted V with price touching the horizontal bottom often.
Head-and-shoulders top Make sure the pattern isn’t a head-and-shoulders top or a complex H&S top.
Confirmation The pattern confirms as valid when price closes below the lowest price in the pattern.

Trading Tips

Trading Tactic Explanation

Measure rule

Compute the height (the difference between the roof’s high, A, and the low, B) and then multiply it by the above “percentage meeting price target.” Subtract the result from the lowest low in the pattern (B) to get a target. The Measure Rule figure to the right shows the measure for a downward breakout.
Uptrends The best performing roofs appear at the top of uptrends lasting less than 3 months in duration. A strong downtrend usually follows a sharp uptrend, returning price back to (or slightly above) the launch point.
Confirmation Wait for confirmation before placing a trade because the breakout can be upward (but it’s rare, occurring just 17% of the time)

Pullbacks

Pullbacks hurt performance.

Height

Tall patterns outperform short ones. Measure the height from highest peak to the horizontal bottom and divide it by the price of the horizontal bottom (the breakout price). Height to breakout price values over 8.82% are considered tall.
Roof chart pattern measure rule
The Measure Rule

Example

Roof chart pattern example

The above figure shows an example of a roof chart pattern. This is an unusual one because it has an upward breakout. However, it was so well defined, that I just had to show you. Aren’t you impressed?

Copyright © 2005-2007 by Thomas N. Bulkowski. All rights reserved. We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.