Bull Flag

A bull flag is a continuation pattern: a sharp advance (the pole) followed by a tight, downward-drifting consolidation (the flag), with the expectation that a breakout from the flag resumes the advance. The pattern is only valid after a genuine pole; a mild uptick followed by chop is just chop.

Volume is the tell that separates real flags from tops. Textbook flags show heavy volume on the pole, shrinking volume through the pullback, then expanding volume on the breakout. A flag that retraces more than about half the pole, or that drags on until the pole is a distant memory, loses its continuation logic.

The measured-move target adds the pole's height to the breakout point. Flags fail like every pattern fails; the structure defines the risk (a stop below the flag low) rather than promising the target.