What Is a Flag and a Pennant

A pole and a flag

A flag is a sharp move followed by a short, slow drift the other way. The sharp move is the pole: gold rose from 2039 to 2195 dollars between 1 and 8 March 2024, 156 dollars in six days. The flag is what hung from it: seven days, 11 to 19 March, drifting slowly downward between two parallel lines, from 2189 to 2146. The pole is fast and one-directional; the flag is slow, small, and leans the other way.

A flag and a pennant

Two shapes hang from a pole, and the lines tell them apart. A flag is two parallel lines: the drift keeps the same width all the way along, a small channel tilted against the pole. A pennant is two lines that meet: the swings shrink until the price is squeezed to a point, a small triangle on the pole. Both come after a sharp move, both are short — days rather than weeks on a daily chart — and both are named for what they look like.

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