Tuesday, April 30, 2013

The Impact Of A Breakaway Gap


In the 9/7/12 blog I looked at the short-term importance of an unfilled upside gap accompanying a breakout.  With yesterday’s breakout to a new closing high occurring along with an unfilled up gapI have revisited that study below.



Results here are strong across the board.

Now let’s look at instances where the 50-day high breakout was not accompanied by an unfilled gap.  Interestingly, the number of instances was nearly the same.  This study also appeared in the 9/7/12 blog.




As you can see these moves to new highs that don’t start with an unfilled gap are much less reliable over the short-term.

Technicians will often use the term “breakaway gap”.  This suggests the gap occurs on the same day as a base breakout.  The idea is that the new high causes excitement and the gap leaves a good amount of people sidelined or stuck short.  When it doesn’t immediately fill, it leads these people to chase and helps to propel the market even higher.

Interestingly, as I showed yesterday on Overnight Edges, breakaway gaps like this have not led to a positive overnight session.

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