Circling back to an important concept in technical analysis, triangle chart patterns tend to resolve in a most bullish manner when price breaks to the upside well before it meanders toward the apex or nadir, lollygagging and pussyfooting around. Even though it may appear to be “coiled up” tightly on a given timeframe, spending too much time near the apex usually lessons the power or thrust of the move, even if that move is eventually up.

The first chart below is the monthly timeframe of pharmaceutical giant Merck. Dating back to 2000, you can see the makings of a descending triangle, with a fairly well-estbalished resistance trendline. Price recently made a move up and over that resistance line, and did so well before it started squatting at the nadir (such as SLV is currently doing on longer-term timeframes). Thus, this move in Merck is awfully encouraging for the bulls looking for a long-term break higher.

Looking at the second chart below of the daily timeframe, the volume pattern sure seems to confirm that our principle of price moving out of the triangle at this stage is a bullish event.

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