Chart Patterns
Three Drives Pattern
Three consecutive drives, each one extending the last retracement by a similar Fibonacci ratio, usually 1.272 or 1.618, before the whole move reverses.
Pick the drive, check the ratio
Five points build this pattern: Drive 1, Retrace 1, Drive 2, Retrace 2, Drive 3. At each step two real candidates are marked on the chart, one is the genuine swing, one is a smaller nearby swing that looks similar. Click the one you think is real. Once Drive 2 is set, the tool computes how it actually extends Retrace 1. Once Drive 3 is set, it does the same for Retrace 2.
Click "Reveal Drive 1 candidates" to begin.
Waiting for all five points.
How it works
- Every ratio is computed off the point you actually clicked, not the correct answer. If you pick the decoy candidate instead of the real swing, the extension math runs on that wrong price anyway, and the ratio usually lands outside the tolerance zone because the decoy point is deliberately built to fall short of the real extension.
- Leg 1 extension is Drive 2 minus Retrace 1, divided by Drive 1 minus Retrace 1. That measures how far the second drive traveled relative to the pullback that preceded it. Leg 2 extension repeats the same math one stage later, Drive 3 minus Retrace 2 divided by Drive 2 minus Retrace 2.
- Both ratios need to land within 0.06 of either 1.272 or 1.618 to pass. They do not need to hit the same target, one leg can land near 1.272 while the other lands near 1.618, but each has to be close to one of the two zones on its own.
- Confirmation requires both legs to pass, not just one. A pattern with one clean extension and one leg that misses by 0.15 is not a real three drives, it is a coincidence on one side of the chart.
Where this breaks
A 0.06 tolerance band is wide enough that plenty of ordinary charts pass by accident
With two independent target zones (1.272 and 1.618) and a 0.06 window around each, roughly a quarter of the price axis on either leg counts as a pass. Random, meaningless zigzags produce ratios inside that band often enough that seeing two legs both clear it is a weaker filter than it first appears, especially across the huge number of possible three-point combinations on any real chart with enough swings to choose from. The pattern's harmonic symmetry looks mathematically precise once it is drawn, but the same looseness that makes it easy to find one after the fact makes it easy to talk yourself into a three drives setup that is really just an ordinary sequence of swings that happened to measure out close enough.