Classifying chart gaps before fill or follow

Locate the void first

A price-gap is an untraded space between successive bars, often visible after a weekend close or a news-driven open. These voids appear often on currency charts after the Friday close and Sunday reopen. Similar voids can form on equity or index charts when news is released.

Whether a gap is treated as tradable depends on identifying its type and judging whether later price action is expected to fill the void. Editorial interpretation: do not start with a fill, follow, or fade idea. First locate the void in the trend and name the pattern that later bars will have to support or reject.

Name the gap type

An exhaustion-gap is placed at the end of a trend. It is expected to fill. The pattern is treated as complete once price returns to the pre-gap level. That return is a gap-fill, after which a reversal can be considered.

A continuation-gap, also labeled a runaway or measuring gap, forms in the middle of a trend. It can help estimate remaining trend length, confirm direction, and is described as less likely to fill.

A breakaway-gap exits a consolidation. It is presented as the start of a new trend, is treated as stronger than a non-gap range break, and is not expected to return to fill the void.

A common-gap, also called an area or trading gap, forms often in sideways ranges after thin sessions or news. It stays inside support and resistance, is not large, and is described as filling within a couple of days.

Test volume and the range break

Volume-confirmation uses participation at the gap and on the follow-through to judge whether a fill or a continuation better fits the pattern. Heavier volume on a breakaway-gap is associated with a greater chance the pair continues in the gap's direction and a lower chance the gap fills.

Editorial interpretation: treat the range break as context, not as a finished label. A void that leaves a consolidation is kept as a breakaway-gap only while later bars still fit a new trend that does not return to fill the void.

Separate exhaustion from continuation

The exhaustion case study separates that pattern from a continuation-gap by waiting for reversal candles, a consolidation that tests new resistance, a protective stop above the turning point, and volume that was light as the gap formed then heavier on the reversal.

Until those checks appear, the same late-looking void can still be read as a mid-trend continuation-gap. The archive workflow treats the two labels as different hypotheses, not as interchangeable names for any open space.

Write a hypothesis later bars can reject

Editorial interpretation: after the type is named, write one claim that later bars can prove wrong. A fill hypothesis expects a gap-fill back to the pre-gap level, which is the expected path for an exhaustion-gap and for many common-gaps. A follow hypothesis expects the void to stay open as the trend continues, which is the expected path for a continuation-gap or a breakaway-gap. A fade hypothesis waits for an exhaustion-gap to complete with a gap-fill and only then considers a reversal.

If later bars violate the chosen type, the classification is discarded. The lab is finished when the hypothesis is specified clearly enough that the next stretch of price can settle it.