---
title: "The 2-2-2 Continuation: 2u-2u-2u and 2d-2d-2d"
canonical: https://thestrat.ai/docs/2-2-2-continuation/
updated: 2026-10-29
author: Alex Sopa (AlexsOptions)
source: TheStrat docs (https://thestrat.ai/docs/)
---

Tools for AI agents: https://mcp.thestrat.ai — see https://thestrat.ai/agents/

# The 2-2-2 Continuation: 2u-2u-2u and 2d-2d-2d

By [Alex Sopa (AlexsOptions)](https://thestrat.ai/docs/alex-sopa/) · Updated October 29, 2026

**Definition** A **2-2-2 continuation** is three [2s](https://thestrat.ai/docs/price-only-trades-in-3-ways/) in a row in the same direction, each one closing further than the last: **2u-2u-2u** up, **2d-2d-2d** down. A series of 2s in one direction is a trend. It normally begins *with* a successful [reversal](https://thestrat.ai/docs/types-of-reversals/): the 2u of a 2d-2u, closing above the 2d, is the first of the three. It continues for as long as nobody takes a single previous bar back the other way.

This is the simplest pattern in TheStrat and the one people skip, because it has no name in most people’s heads. It is not a setup you hunt on its own. It is the thing that tells you a reversal worked, that the timeframe above is being built in your favour, and that the next lower-timeframe signal in that direction is worth taking.

## The pattern

Take it one bar at a time. A 2u means one thing: this bar took the previous bar’s high and did not take its low. Two of them in a row means it happened twice, and nobody sold price back through a whole previous bar in between. Three of them is a trend on that timeframe, and the close of each bar is the proof — a 2u that closes near its high is a bar buyers paid up through and then held.

[Figure: Left, 2u-2u-2u: X, the 2d that takes X’s low, then the 2u that takes the 2d’s high and closes above it — the reversal — and then two more 2u’s, each taking the last bar’s high and closing higher. Right, the same thing inverted: 2d-2d-2d, aggressive selling. Each bar hands the next one its trigger.]

The reversal is what starts it. A [2d-2u](https://thestrat.ai/docs/2-2-reversal/) that closes above the 2d has done something specific: everybody who sold that 2d is at a loss, all at once, and the buyers who did it were willing to pay through the whole of a previous bar to get filled. That is **aggressive buying**, and aggressive buying does not usually finish in one bar. The 2u-2u-2u is what it looks like when it does not.

Read a run right to left and it is a ladder. Every bar’s high is the next bar’s [trigger](https://thestrat.ai/docs/actionable-signals/), and every rung is a level where the other side had to give up. That is why the pattern matters more than its name: those rungs are the levels the next pullback has to hold, and the run is a [broadening formation](https://thestrat.ai/docs/price-discovery-broadening-formation/) being built one bar at a time.

## Where the next 2 actually comes from

Here is the part that turns the pattern into a trade. A daily 2u does not appear because the day decided to be a 2u. It appears at a precise moment: the moment price takes yesterday’s high. Something has to do that, and that something is always a lower-timeframe move — usually a **lower-timeframe reversal**, in the same direction as the run, printed against a level, hours after the open.

So the way to trade a 2u-2u-2u is not to buy the third 2u after it closes. It is to be watching the 15, 30 or 60 minute chart on the third day, waiting for the reversal that will take yesterday’s high — the lower timeframe re-confirming the direction the higher timeframe is already running. This is the [do](https://thestrat.ai/docs/create-negate/) half of create/negate/do, and it is the same [domino](https://thestrat.ai/docs/take-action-window/) the whole method is built on.

[Figure: TSLA, Monday May 11 2026, 30-minute against the daily. The daily was already 2u-2u off Wednesday’s 2d-2u reversal. Monday gapped back inside Friday’s range and sold for an hour; the 10:30 outside bar reversed at the low of the day and the 11:00 2u carried price through Friday’s 431.20. The third daily 2u closed at 445.00 — the LTF reversal is what re-confirmed the higher timeframe.]

**How to read it.** The daily was already 2u-2u: Wednesday’s 2d closed green, Thursday took its high and closed higher — a working reversal — and Friday made it two. Monday then gapped *down*, back inside Friday’s range, and sold for an hour. On the daily alone there was nothing to do and no signal to take. On the 30 minute there was: the 10:30 bar took both sides of the 10:00 bar, printed the low of the day and closed green, and the 11:00 bar went 2u through it. That 2u is what took Friday’s 431.20 — and the third daily 2u went in force at eleven in the morning, not at four in the afternoon.

## The same thing inverted

2d-2d-2d is aggressive selling, and it reads the same way backwards. The lower-timeframe cause is a reversal down — a [2u-2d](https://thestrat.ai/docs/shooter/) at the high of the day, usually against a level that failed to break.

[Figure: ORCL, Thursday July 2 2026, 30-minute against the daily. The daily was already 2d-2d. Thursday gapped up and rallied for thirty minutes; the 10:00 half-hour put in the high of the day just under Wednesday’s high, and the 10:30 2d reversed it and took Wednesday’s 142.50 in the same bar. The third daily 2d closed at 140.27, and it traded 114.50 by July 28.]

**How to read it.** Two daily 2d’s were already in. Thursday gapped up and ran for thirty minutes, which is exactly the point at which most people decide the sell-off is over. The 10:00 half-hour stopped 49 cents under Wednesday’s high — it failed to make the day a [3](https://thestrat.ai/docs/price-only-trades-in-3-ways/) — and everyone who paid up into that gap was the trapped side. The 10:30 bar went 2d through the 10:00 low and took Wednesday’s 142.50 in the same half-hour. Third daily 2d, in force before eleven, closing at 140.27 — in the bottom fifth of the day’s range.

## When the run pauses, and when it is over

Two things end a run, and they are not the same thing.

An **[inside bar](https://thestrat.ai/docs/inside-bar/) is a pause.** Nobody took the previous bar either way, so nothing has been decided. TSLA went inside the day after the third 2u and then went 2u again. An inside bar in a run is a [1-2](https://thestrat.ai/docs/1-bar-rev-strat/) setup in both directions, and the run is still on until the down side of it is taken.

A **2 the other way, or an outside bar, is a reversal.** That is the run ending, not resting. XOM added a fourth 2u at 162.55 and then printed an outside bar that took both sides and closed at 156.28 — the last two rungs of the ladder given back in one day. See [exhaustion risk](https://thestrat.ai/docs/exhaustion-risk/): the deeper into a run you are, the more of the move is already behind you and the further away the far side of the formation is.

The practical rule that follows: the first and second 2 in a run are where the reward is; by the fourth and fifth, more of the move to the far side of the formation is behind you than in front of you. Rob’s [corrective activity](https://thestrat.ai/docs/corrective-activity/) test is the one to apply — if the month, week and day are already stretched in one direction, the lower-timeframe move against you is profit-taking, and the lower-timeframe move with you is the last one.

## Frequently asked

### What is a 2u-2u-2u in TheStrat?

Three consecutive bars that each take the previous bar’s high without taking its low, each closing higher than the last. It is a continuation pattern: a series of 2s in the same direction is a trend on that timeframe. 2d-2d-2d is the inverse — three bars each taking the previous low and closing lower.

### How is 2u-2u-2u different from a 2-2 reversal?

A [2-2 reversal](https://thestrat.ai/docs/2-2-reversal/) is two 2s in opposite directions — a breakout taken straight back. A 2-2-2 continuation is 2s in the *same* direction. They overlap by one bar: the 2u of the 2d-2u reversal is also the first 2u of the 2d-2u-2u-2u. The reversal is what starts the run, not something that happens before it.

### How do you trade a 2u-2u-2u?

Not by buying the third bar at its close. Drop to the 15, 30 or 60 minute chart on the day the higher timeframe needs its next 2, and take the lower-timeframe reversal in the direction of the run — the one that takes yesterday’s high or low. The lower-timeframe reversal is what puts the higher-timeframe 2 in force. See [trading continuation](https://thestrat.ai/docs/trading-continuation/).

### When does a 2u-2u-2u stop?

An inside bar pauses it — nothing has been decided and the run is still on until the down side of the inside bar is taken. A 2 the other way, or an outside bar, ends it. While the run continues, the number of adds has no limit. You scale out at the target, or on a signal against you.

**Related:** [Trading Continuation](https://thestrat.ai/docs/trading-continuation/) · [The 2-2 Reversal](https://thestrat.ai/docs/2-2-reversal/) · [Types of Reversals](https://thestrat.ai/docs/types-of-reversals/) · [The Inside Bar](https://thestrat.ai/docs/inside-bar/) · [Exhaustion Risk](https://thestrat.ai/docs/exhaustion-risk/) · [Create, Negate, or Do](https://thestrat.ai/docs/create-negate/)
**Back to:** [Actionable Signals →](https://thestrat.ai/docs/actionable-signals/)

TheStrat was developed by Rob Smith. These docs are written by Alex Sopa (AlexsOptions) and quote his teaching.