Pattern Detail

Gartley

The original harmonic pattern: a 0.786 retracement completing an XABCD structure, read as an exhausted pullback turning back with the larger trend.

X A B C D
  • B = 0.618 of XA
  • C = 0.382-0.886 of AB
  • D = 1.272-1.618 of BC
  • D = 0.786 of XA
Idealized bullish Gartley. It completes at a low and projects a move up.

Bullish Gartley

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How to read this

Everything here is in R, the setup's own risk. 1R is the distance from the entry (the pattern's closing price) to where it would be proven wrong — its lowest low over the 4 bars that form it. So "offered 2R" means price ran twice that distance in your favor at some point before the stop. It does not assume you took profit there: a target is a strategy choice.

Room offered (≥ 1R)

37.5%

Too few to trust

Offered at least 1× its risk before the stop, vs 44.1% for a random long entry (-6.6 pts).

Move size vs normal

1.18×

Realized range over the next 20 bars vs a random bar. Precedes a bigger move.

Typical room (20-bar)

0.90R

Average run in favor (capped at 3R), vs 1.16R for a random long entry.

Summary

Offered ≥1R 37.5% of the time vs 44.1% for a random long entry. The 6.6-point gap is no bigger than the ±34.4-point margin of error you would get by chance from 8 occurrences. Not a reliable edge.

Room offered, this setup vs a random long entry

Only 8 occurrences. The breakdown below is shown in full, but a sample this small is anecdotal, a hint, not a measured edge. That is usually a limit of available history, not a flaw in the pattern. For a firmer read, try a lower timeframe or a more active instrument.

Outcome This setup Random entry Edge
Offered ≥ 1R 37.5% 44.1% -6.6
Offered ≥ 2R 25.0% 24.7% +0.3
Offered ≥ 3R 12.5% 15.7% -3.2
Stopped < 1R 62.5% 42.7% +19.8
Went sideways 0.0% 13.2% -13.2

8 occurrences · 10,656 random-entry controls · 20-bar horizon

Bearish Gartley

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How to read this

Everything here is in R, the setup's own risk. 1R is the distance from the entry (the pattern's closing price) to where it would be proven wrong — its highest high over the 4 bars that form it. So "offered 2R" means price ran twice that distance in your favor at some point before the stop. It does not assume you took profit there: a target is a strategy choice.

Room offered (≥ 1R)

41.7%

Too few to trust

Offered at least 1× its risk before the stop, vs 43.0% for a random short entry (-1.4 pts).

Move size vs normal

1.17×

Realized range over the next 20 bars vs a random bar. Precedes a bigger move.

Typical room (20-bar)

1.10R

Average run in favor (capped at 3R), vs 1.16R for a random short entry.

Summary

Offered ≥1R 41.7% of the time vs 43.0% for a random short entry. The 1.4-point gap is no bigger than the ±28.0-point margin of error you would get by chance from 12 occurrences. Not a reliable edge.

Room offered, this setup vs a random short entry

Only 12 occurrences. The breakdown below is shown in full, but a sample this small is anecdotal, a hint, not a measured edge. That is usually a limit of available history, not a flaw in the pattern. For a firmer read, try a lower timeframe or a more active instrument.

Outcome This setup Random entry Edge
Offered ≥ 1R 41.7% 43.0% -1.4
Offered ≥ 2R 16.7% 25.9% -9.2
Offered ≥ 3R 16.7% 17.0% -0.4
Stopped < 1R 58.3% 47.1% +11.2
Went sideways 0.0% 9.9% -9.9

12 occurrences · 10,573 random-entry controls · 20-bar horizon

The Gartley is the oldest of the harmonic patterns, named for H.M. Gartley who described the shape in 1935. It is a five-point structure, X to A to B to C to D, defined by Fibonacci ratios between the legs. The signature is the completion: D sits at a 0.786 retracement of the whole X-to-A leg.

How to spot it

  • A clear X-to-A trend leg, then a sequence of swings that pull back against it.
  • B retraces 0.618 of XA, C retraces 0.382 to 0.886 of AB, and D projects 1.272 to 1.618 of BC.
  • D lands at a 0.786 retracement of XA, short of the origin X. All four ratios hold at once.
  • The structure completes at D, a swing low in an uptrend (a buy) or a swing high in a downtrend (a sell).

The chart above marks the X, A, B, C, D points on a real occurrence, with the ratio of each leg.

Why it matters

A Gartley forms inside a trend. The X-to-A move is the trend leg, and everything after it is a pullback that overshoots then completes at a measured depth. D is read as the point where the pullback is spent and the original trend resumes. Because D stays well short of X, the Gartley is a buy-the-dip structure rather than a bet on a full reversal, and the shallow completion keeps the stop close.

That places it among the retracement harmonics, alongside the Bat, where the completion sits inside the prior move. The extension harmonics, the Butterfly and Crab, are the opposite case: D pushes past the origin, so they fade an overstretched move rather than buy a dip. The Gartley is the conservative, in-trend member of the family.

The honest question is not whether the shape can be drawn on a chart, it always can after the fact, but whether a completion actually leads anywhere. That is what the data below measures.

Does it actually work?

A pattern is a setup, not a trade, so the question is not “did it win” but “how much room did the move offer before the structure was proven wrong.” The tabs below answer that across five futures markets (Nasdaq, S&P 500, gold, crude oil, natural gas) and seven timeframes from one minute to one day.

For each completion we measure the room price offered in units of the pattern’s own risk, then set it against what a random swing pivot of the same kind would have done. A Gartley that turns up from a swing low is judged against ordinary swing lows; one that turns down from a swing high, against ordinary swing highs. When the completion offers more room more often than those random swings, that shows up as a real edge. When it does not, the page says so plainly.

Harmonic structures are rare, so read the sample size in view. On the slower timeframes a Gartley completes only single digits of times, or not at all, while the faster timeframes give a larger sample. Thin samples are flagged for you.

How we measured it

  • Entry is the close of the bar that confirms the D point, the earliest a trader could act without hindsight.
  • One unit of risk, 1R, is the distance from that close to D itself, the swing extreme the structure completes at. A move back through D says the pattern has failed.
  • We follow the next 20 bars and record how far price ran in your favor, in multiples of that risk, before D gave way.
  • The comparison is a random swing pivot of the same side, which already sits at a turning point with a tight stop. That keeps it apples-to-apples: the question is whether a Gartley swing runs further than an ordinary swing of the same shape, not whether a tight stop flatters the numbers.

What this page does not cover

  • A profit target. Harmonic tradition puts one at a 0.618 retracement, but where you take profit is a strategy choice, so this measures only the room the structure tends to offer.
  • A trend filter, or confluence with support, resistance, or a higher-timeframe level, which traders normally use to weight a completion.
  • A guarantee. A valid shape on the chart is a setup, not a certainty. What it tends to do next is exactly what the numbers above describe.

FAQ

Do harmonic patterns like the Gartley actually work?

Harmonic patterns are described everywhere but rarely tested honestly. This page scores every completed Gartley by the room it offered in units of its own risk, measured against random swing pivots of the same kind, and counts a pattern only on the bar its final pivot confirms, so nothing is read in hindsight. The result is a like-for-like comparison rather than the round-number success rates usually quoted for harmonics.

What is the Gartley pattern success rate?

There is no single reliable figure, and the often-cited 70 to 80% numbers rarely specify instrument, timeframe, or test period, and almost never state what target and stop they assume. Rather than quote folklore, this page measures how far a completion runs in units of its own risk and whether that beats an ordinary swing of the same shape. The tabs show that comparison across five markets and seven timeframes.

How is the Gartley defined here?

It is a five-point XABCD structure where B retraces 0.618 of XA, C retraces 0.382 to 0.886 of AB, D projects 1.272 to 1.618 of BC, and D completes at 0.786 of XA, all holding at once within a 5% tolerance. Pivots use 3 bars on each side and are confirmed before they count.

Sample Gartley Completions (15)

Based on data through Apr 29, 2026

Time Direction Risk (pts) Room offered Result
Aug 21, 2025 Bearish 87.25 1.86R Ran ≥1R
May 13, 2024 Bullish 49.25 1.76R Ran ≥1R
Jul 5, 2018 Bearish 12.25 1.94R Ran ≥1R
Dec 10, 2015 Bearish 29.25 3.00R Ran ≥1R
Nov 7, 2014 Bearish 10.25 0.73R Stopped
Oct 29, 2014 Bullish 4.75 0.00R Stopped
Dec 17, 2013 Bullish 9.75 0.00R Stopped
Sep 24, 2013 Bearish 5 0.40R Stopped
Dec 28, 2012 Bullish 4.5 0.00R Stopped
Dec 12, 2011 Bearish 2.75 0.00R Stopped
Nov 30, 2009 Bullish 6.75 3.00R Ran ≥1R
May 8, 2009 Bearish 7.5 3.00R Ran ≥1R
Feb 25, 2009 Bearish 5.25 0.38R Stopped
Jan 22, 2009 Bullish 12.75 2.14R Ran ≥1R
Dec 18, 2008 Bullish 14.25 0.18R Stopped

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