-When a stock ends the day at a certain level and then starts at a new level even though no trades took place.
-Gaps are usually from one day to the next.
-The reason is that something within the company or industry can change: earnings report, etc.
-Weekly charts can also have gaps, but that usually happens over the weekend and it isn’t as common.
4 Types of Gaps:
1. Common:
Likely caused by low trading volume.
It will usually be filled (prices slowly revert to that gap).
2. Breakaway
-More meaningful than common gaps
-They can happen in the middle of the trading day
-They have a downward momentum
-Suddenly the stock dips down below the support line. The gap is between the support line and the dip down. This is due to a change in psychology, and people start to sell their shares.
-Make sure you see an increase in volume at the gap point. That is confirmation of the downward move.
-Another way to be sure that the breakaway gap is a healthy gap is if it happens with another pattern (e.g. a descending triangle pattern).
3. Runaway
-Similar to the breakaway gap
-Instead of going to the down side it is going to the up side
-It is basically a stock price jumping up to a new level (typically due to product releases, news events, etc)
-Anything that creates positive sentiment creates a runaway gap
-There are three possibilities it can go through:
1. Downard trend and back up, hops and continues to go up
2. Upward incline, gap to incline
3. Downward trend to a slingshot upward
-Runaway gaps are more powerful when they come out of an ascending triangle or trend line.
4. Exhaustion
-Very good to trade with, if you watch them
-They can be dangerous if you are new to the stock market or are not spotting them correctly
-They happen when a stock shoots up, jumps and continues to trend up, but will eventually decline
-This can happen with a decline as well (declines, jumps down, continues to decline and then shoots up)
-You want to be cautious with these gaps because they typically happen in a state of panic
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