Definition
A performance rank is a number assigned to a chart pattern that summarizes how well it has worked across a large historical sample. Rather than treating all patterns as equally trustworthy, the rank orders them so a trader can tell a high-quality formation from a mediocre one at a glance.
The rank is built from measurable outcomes such as average price change after the breakout, how often the pattern fails, and how frequently it produces a small or premature reversal. A lower rank number typically means the pattern performed near the top of its peer group.
Why it matters
How it works
Building a performance rank requires identifying many real examples of a pattern, recording what happened after each one, and aggregating the results into statistics. Common metrics include the average move, the percentage of patterns that fail to move at least a token amount, and the rate of throwbacks or pullbacks.
These statistics are then combined and the patterns sorted. Because behavior differs by market regime, robust rankings are computed separately for rising and falling markets, so the same pattern may carry two different ranks.