Three failed attempts at roughly the same high, completed on a close below the lows that separate them.
A triple top is a double-top that got one more try. The extra test is sometimes read as stronger evidence of resistance, on the argument that supply has now shown up three times at the same price.
An alternative and equally plausible reading is that a level touched three times is extremely visible, and that every touch consumes some of the sell orders sitting there. Levels tested repeatedly do frequently break, which is why some traders trade the third touch as a breakout rather than a reversal.
Because both readings are defensible, the level itself carries less information than what price does after it trades there. Wait for the close, then trade the direction the market chose, rather than deciding in advance which story is true.
Original diagrams for the ideas on this page. Illustrative, not real market data.
Breakout and retest. Price stalls under the same level several times, pushes above it, then drops back to touch it from above before carrying on. That touch is the retest, where the old ceiling is tried as a floor. A break that falls straight back under it is a false breakout.Support, resistance and the flip. Support is a price where buyers keep stepping in and the fall stops; resistance is a price where sellers keep stepping in and the rise stops. Once price closes above an old ceiling, that same level often acts as the new floor.
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