Pattern Detail

Three Drives

Three symmetric pushes to a high or low, each separated by a partial pullback, read as a climax.

1 2 3
  • Pullbacks ~0.5-0.786 of the prior drive
  • Drives ~1.13-1.618 of the prior pullback
  • Drive 3 ~ Drive 2 in size
Idealized bullish Three Drives. It completes at a low and projects a move up.

Bullish Three Drives

Limited sample (77). Directional at best.

i

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)

40.3%

Not reliable

Offered at least 1× its risk before the stop, vs 44.1% for a random long entry (-3.8 pts).

Move size vs normal

1.06×

Realized range over the next 20 bars vs a random bar. About normal.

Typical room (20-bar)

1.14R

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

Summary

Offered ≥1R 40.3% of the time vs 44.1% for a random long entry. The 3.8-point gap is no bigger than the ±11.1-point margin of error you would get by chance from 77 occurrences. Not a reliable edge.

Room offered, this setup vs a random long entry

Outcome This setup Random entry Edge
Offered ≥ 1R 40.3% 44.1% -3.8
Offered ≥ 2R 28.6% 24.7% +3.9
Offered ≥ 3R 16.9% 15.7% +1.2
Stopped < 1R 33.8% 42.7% -8.9
Went sideways 26.0% 13.2% +12.8

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

Bearish Three Drives

Limited sample (97). Directional at best.

i

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)

41.2%

Not reliable

Offered at least 1× its risk before the stop, vs 43.0% for a random short entry (-1.8 pts).

Move size vs normal

0.92×

Realized range over the next 20 bars vs a random bar. About normal.

Typical room (20-bar)

1.08R

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

Summary

Offered ≥1R 41.2% of the time vs 43.0% for a random short entry. The 1.8-point gap is no bigger than the ±9.9-point margin of error you would get by chance from 97 occurrences. Not a reliable edge.

Room offered, this setup vs a random short entry

Outcome This setup Random entry Edge
Offered ≥ 1R 41.2% 43.0% -1.8
Offered ≥ 2R 18.6% 25.9% -7.3
Offered ≥ 3R 13.4% 17.0% -3.6
Stopped < 1R 42.3% 47.1% -4.8
Went sideways 16.5% 9.9% +6.6

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

Three Drives is the most visual pattern in the family. It is three successive pushes in the same direction, each reaching a new extreme, separated by two partial pullbacks. There is no single completion ratio. The signature is the rhythm: three matched drives and two matched corrections that give the structure its symmetry.

How to spot it

  • A first drive into a new extreme, then a partial pullback, then a second drive that extends 1.13 to 1.618 of that pullback.
  • A second pullback that retraces 0.5 to 0.786 of the second drive, then a third drive extending 1.13 to 1.618 of it.
  • The third drive stays close in size to the second, so the three pushes look roughly equal and the two corrections match.
  • The structure completes at the third drive’s extreme, a swing low in an uptrend (a buy) or a swing high in a downtrend (a sell).

The chart above marks the points on a real occurrence, with the ratio of each leg.

Why it matters

Three matched pushes into the same extreme are read as a climax. By the third drive the move has stretched a long way, each successive push takes more effort to make less progress, and the symmetry suggests the trend is running on fumes. The completion fades the third drive, betting the fourth push does not come, and the stop sits just beyond the final extreme.

It fails when the third drive is not the last. Strong trends can print four, five, or more drives, and fading the third leaves a trade against a move that keeps going. Symmetry is also in the eye of the reader, so loose settings find Three Drives that are not really there.

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 Three Drives 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 Three Drives swing 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 third drive, the earliest a trader could act without hindsight.
  • One unit of risk, 1R, is the distance from that close to the third drive’s extreme, the swing extreme the structure completes at. A move back through the third drive’s extreme 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 the third drive 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 Three Drives 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 Fibonacci 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

Does the Three Drives pattern actually work?

Harmonic patterns are described everywhere but rarely tested honestly. This page scores every completed Three Drives 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 Three Drives pattern success rate?

There is no single reliable figure, and the round-number rates repeated online 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 Three Drives defined here?

It has no single completion ratio. The second drive extends 1.13 to 1.618 of the first pullback, the second pullback retraces 0.5 to 0.786 of the second drive, the third drive extends 1.13 to 1.618 of the second pullback, and the third drive stays close in size to the second for symmetry, all holding at once within a 5% tolerance. Pivots use 3 bars on each side and are confirmed before they count.

Sample Three Drives Completions (20)

Based on data through Apr 29, 2026

Time Direction Risk (pts) Room offered Result
Feb 11, 2026 Bearish 53.25 0.67R Stopped
Oct 9, 2025 Bullish 52.25 3.00R Ran ≥1R
Aug 27, 2025 Bearish 89 0.02R Stopped
Jul 23, 2025 Bearish 33.5 0.63R Stopped
Jul 11, 2025 Bullish 123.75 0.28R Flat
Jun 10, 2025 Bearish 27.75 0.00R Stopped
Mar 12, 2025 Bearish 147 1.60R Ran ≥1R
Jan 16, 2025 Bullish 85.25 0.57R Stopped
Sep 30, 2024 Bullish 77.25 0.64R Stopped
Sep 13, 2024 Bearish 18.5 0.32R Stopped
Jul 29, 2024 Bearish 155.25 0.70R Flat
Jun 7, 2024 Bullish 46.25 2.51R Ran ≥1R
Apr 18, 2024 Bullish 11.75 3.00R Ran ≥1R
Apr 11, 2024 Bearish 18 0.00R Stopped
Feb 27, 2024 Bullish 68.75 0.25R Stopped
Nov 16, 2023 Bullish 78.25 0.41R Flat
Oct 5, 2023 Bearish 119.25 1.01R Ran ≥1R
Oct 4, 2023 Bearish 22.75 3.00R Ran ≥1R
Aug 1, 2023 Bearish 32.5 3.00R Ran ≥1R
Jul 24, 2023 Bullish 73 0.56R Flat

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