Does point 3 confirm a 1-2-3 breakout?

No. Point 3 confirms the selected pivot sequence; the breakout is a later crossing of point 2. This study excludes a break that occurred before point 3 became available.

Is the Ross Hook the same as point 3?

No. Point 3 precedes the point 2 breakout. The Ross Hook belongs to the move after that breakout, when its first correction identifies a new reference extreme.

Why can a pivot label appear on an earlier candle?

The label can be drawn at the pivot location after later bars confirm it. With two right-side bars, a pivot at bar 22 is first knowable at the close of bar 24. Alerts must use the confirmation time.

What is the success rate of 123 pattern trading?

No success rate is established here. A result needs a specified swing detector, tradable entry and exit rules, costs, market sample and test period. A pattern count or a five-bar false-break count is not a profitability estimate.

TradingView chart patterns

1-2-3 reversal pattern: confirmed pivots and the Ross Hook

A bullish 1-2-3 reversal pattern has a low at point 1, a rebound high at point 2 and a higher low at point 3; the bearish version reverses those directions. A break of point 2 is a separate event from identifying the three pivots. A Ross Hook follows the breakout when the first correction interrupts the new move. Neither event guarantees that the reversal will continue.

See the decision guide

Separate the original pattern from a programmable version

Joe Ross describes 1-2-3 formations using bar-by-bar full corrections. His definition can place two numbered points on one bar. The study below instead requires three distinct confirmed pivots, so it is an explicit implementation variant, not a complete reproduction of his method. Its purpose is to make chart annotations and alerts auditable.

Use standard candles, one symbol, one timeframe and one session setting. Record how you selected the preceding trend; a discretionary trend label is not an objective detector.
For this study, a pivot high must exceed the highs of two bars on either side. A pivot low must be below the lows of two bars on either side. Equal values fail this strict pivot rule.
Choose an alternating low-high-low or high-low-high sequence with distinct bar indices. Reject ambiguous same-bar high and low pivots. Save the selected triplet rather than replacing its anchors after seeing the outcome.
The harmonic Three Drives pattern uses three successive pushes and ratio measurements. Its numbers describe different anchors; do not substitute it for a 1-2-3 reversal.

Anchor or event	Bullish study	Bearish study
Point 1	Low after a selected declining swing	High after a selected rising swing
Point 2	Later confirmed rebound high	Later confirmed pullback low
Point 3	Later confirmed low above point 1 and below point 2	Later confirmed high below point 1 and above point 2
Breakout	First eligible close strictly above point 2	First eligible close strictly below point 2
Structural invalidation	Any low at or below point 1	Any high at or above point 1

Account for the two-bar confirmation delay

With two right-side bars, a pivot at bar 22 becomes available only when bar 24 closes. TradingView warns that a marker plotted back on a pivot candle can conceal this delay. Store both the pivot bar and the confirmation bar. A historical label on bar 22 does not mean an alert was possible there.

This study freezes all three anchors at point 3 confirmation. If point 1 was touched after its own confirmation, discard the candidate. Check invalidation before breakout on any later bar.
Start the breakout window on the next bar after point 3 confirmation. Accept only a fresh crossing: previous close at or below point 2 and current close above it for bullish setups; reverse the inequalities for bearish setups.
If price already traded beyond point 2 after point 3 but before or during point 3 confirmation, label the candidate late-confirmed and exclude it. Do not move the alert back to that earlier break.
Allow ten eligible bars in this example. If none qualifies, mark the setup expired. The two-bar pivot width, close trigger and ten-bar expiry are research choices, not recommended settings or TradingView defaults.

Reproduce a bullish example with fixed anchors

All prices below are hypothetical units, with a minimum tick of 0.1. Assume the omitted neighboring candles meet the strict pivot test, no intervening invalidation occurred, and price stayed at or below 110 between point 3 and its confirmation. These assumptions make the arithmetic example possible; the table is not sufficient OHLC data for a backtest.

The point 2 to point 3 retracement is (110 - 104) / (110 - 100) = 60%. This is descriptive arithmetic; the study imposes no Fibonacci band.
The breakout close is 110.4 - 104 = 6.4 units above point 3 and 110.4 - 100 = 10.4 above point 1. A stop near point 3 and structural invalidation at point 1 represent different exit rules.
If a separate test assumes an entry at 110.4 and a stop at 103.9, planned distance is 6.5 units. A hypothetical 2R level is 110.4 + 2 × 6.5 = 123.4 before costs. Neither the fill nor a visit to 123.4 is established by this example.

Bar or event	Known prices	Decision at that time
10, confirmed at close of 12	Point 1 low = 100	First anchor becomes available
16, confirmed at close of 18	Point 2 high = 110	Breakout reference becomes available
22, confirmed at close of 24	Point 3 low = 104; bar 24 close = 109	100 < 104 < 110; freeze triplet
25 closes	High = 110.5; low = 108.8; close = 109.8	Wick beyond 110; no close-based breakout
26 closes	High = 111; low = 109; close = 110.4	109.8 <= 110 and 110.4 > 110; breakout
27 closes	High = 112; low = 110.2; close = 111.5	New high after the breakout
28 closes	High = 111.7; low = 110.6; close = 111	First failure to make a new high; hook at 112
29 closes	High = 112.5; low = 110.8; close = 112.3	First later close above 112; hook breakout

Read the Ross Hook as a later structure

Trading Educators defines a Ross Hook as the first correction following a breakout of a 1-2-3 formation, ledge or consolidation. After an upward breakout, the first bar that fails to make a new high identifies the hook at the preceding extreme; equal highs also qualify. Reverse this for a downward breakout. The hook point is the extreme before the correction, not the correction low or high.

In the example, point 2 is 110 and the hook is 112. Bar 28 reveals the hook; bar 29 breaks it. Keep these as two events and preserve their distinct prices.
For this study, begin scanning with the bar after the 1-2-3 breakout. Freeze the first hook and require a later fresh close across it. A bearish hook uses the first failure to make a new low and a later close below the saved low.
Expire the hook after ten bars following its identification, or cancel it if point 1 is touched first. These are chosen study limits, not claims about the original Ross entry method.
The original material also discusses earlier Traders Trick entries. This page does not implement that method. A close-based hook alert is a deliberately different timing rule.

Log false breaks without rewriting the pattern

For an auditable failure measure, define a bullish false break here as a close at or below the breakout level within the next five bars, inclusive; reverse it for bearish breaks. Apply this separately to the point 2 event and the hook event. This label measures a return across a level, not trade profit or loss.

The five-bar window after bar 26 is bars 27 through 31; after bar 29 it is bars 30 through 34. An equality close counts as a return under this chosen measure.
A break can pass the five-bar test and fail later. Preserve later invalidation separately. Do not report passing this filter as a win.
Nested swings and ranges can produce conflicting counts. Save rejected triplets and the reason for each decision instead of selecting only the clearest hindsight examples.
An OHLC candle can cross both an entry and a stop without revealing their order. Strategy testing still needs executable entry and exit rules, gap handling, fees, slippage and position sizing.

Alternative path	Result under this study
Point 3 low equals 100	Rejected geometry: point 3 is not a higher low
A later low is 100, even with a close above 110	Structural invalidation takes priority; no new signal
Bar 27 closes at 109.7 after the bar 26 break	False break of 110, recorded one bar after confirmation
Bar 30 closes at 111.8 after the bar 29 hook break	False hook break of 112; retain the original event
No qualifying breakout in bars 25 through 34	Expire at the close of 34
Price gaps across the trigger	Flag the gap; a close signal does not prove a fill at the level

Review the anchors before asking for a Pine alert

AI Chart Analysis accepts chart screenshots and returns chart structure, levels and uncertainties. Upload a readable image with the symbol, timeframe and price axis visible, with your proposed 1, 2, 3 and hook labels placed clear of the candles. Compare the response against the chart. It does not establish the exact confirmation bars or resolve unreadable prices for you.

Keep an anchor log with symbol, timeframe, session, direction, point prices, pivot bars, confirmation bars, point 2 break, hook identification, hook break, invalidation and expiry.
Give Pine Script AI Coding Agent the strict pivot width, tie handling, triplet selection, late-confirmation rejection, close-crossing conditions and event priority. Ask for separate candidate, breakout, failure and expiry markers.
State how overlapping candidates should be selected before requesting a detector. A manually chosen triplet leaves human judgment in the process; code cannot infer an unstated selection rule.
Review and syntax-check the generated draft, then compare its event timestamps with a bar-by-bar TradingView review. This page provides a rule specification and worked audit, not a tested Pine detector.

Where Pineify fits

AI Chart Analysis

Review the visible structure in a labeled chart screenshot, then check the returned levels and uncertainties against your anchor log.

Also useful: Pine Script AI Coding Agent. Use the written pivot, breakout and invalidation rules to request a Pine Script draft for review, syntax checking and event-by-event testing.

Review a chart screenshot

Related resources

TradingView chart patterns Three Drives harmonic pattern Quasimodo structure and retest Bar-close alert frequency

Frequently asked questions

Educational information, not investment advice. Prices, bar numbers, thresholds and risk calculations are hypothetical. Pattern recognition and alerts do not guarantee a reversal, an order fill or a profitable trade.

Sources and verification

Last verified: 2026-10-17

Published by Pineify. Pineify is an independent product and is not affiliated with TradingView. Sources support the technical explanations; examples do not establish trading performance.