Bear Trap

A bear trap is the mirror of a bull trap: a breakdown below support that quickly reverses back above the level, trapping traders who shorted the break and stopping out longs at the exact low. The reclaimed level then flips into a springboard, because trapped shorts covering are forced buyers.

The pattern overlaps with a shakeout — a flush through obvious stop clusters below support that clears out weak hands before a markup. The functional read is the same either way: a breakdown that cannot hold within a bar or two is information, and the failure of the bearish resolution is itself a bullish signal many traders trade directly.