According to a very interesting article published in the Stocks and Commodities Magazine (May 2009 issue), the failure rate of charts patterns has tripled in recent years, at least in the stock market. After studying 13,932 charts patterns spread over the years from 1991 to 2008, Thomas Bulkowski (THE expert in chart patterns) found out that these patterns are now 3 times more likely to fail than in the past! Patterns studied are diamonds tops and bottoms, double tops and bottoms (8 types of Adam et Eve combinaisons), triple tops and bottoms, rising and failing wedges, head and shoulders tops and bottoms (4 types of simple and complex), ascending, descending and symetrical triangles, and rectangle tops and bottoms. Excluded were broadening patterns (6 types) and scallops (4 types) because of the difficulty in determining where the breakout is. So, if you have found it more difficult to trade charts patterns the last several years, now you know why