Concept
Breakaway Gap
Breakaway Gap is a Chart & Candlestick Patterns concept. The Library holds 1 implementations, each one a working definition you can pull into Quant.
Top Breakaway Gap indicators
1 total
What is a Breakaway Gap?
A breakaway gap is the gap that starts a move. In the classical four-gap taxonomy (common, breakaway, runaway, exhaustion), it is the one that opens beyond the boundary of a recognizable structure (a trading range, a triangle boundary, a neckline), leaving an untraded window behind, and it typically arrives with a clear volume expansion. The gap itself is the breakout: price jumps from ranging to trending without auctioning the levels in between.
In the classical account, breakaway gaps are among the least likely of the gap types to fill quickly, because the imbalance that created them marks the start of new commitment rather than noise inside a range. None of that is guaranteed. A breakaway gap that fills fast and completely is evidence the classification was wrong: either a common gap mislabeled, or a breakout that failed.
How traders use it
- As breakout confirmation: gapping out of a base on expanded volume is read as stronger evidence of commitment than an intrabar poke through the same boundary.
- As a level source: the gap's edges and midpoint are treated as support after an upside break (resistance after a downside one), so retests into the window are watched as continuation entries, with no guarantee the window holds.
- As a fill filter: classifying a gap as breakaway rather than common flips the default expectation away from an immediate gap fill, which changes whether the gap is faded or followed.
Related concepts · Gap taxonomy
Concept family
Chart & Candlestick Patterns
84 concepts mapped · 46 in the Library
Breakaway Gap FAQ
Do breakaway gaps get filled?
Sometimes, but the classical expectation is that they resist filling for longer than common gaps, because they mark the start of a new trend rather than noise inside a range. No fill outcome is guaranteed either way. A fast, complete fill with no follow-through is usually read as evidence the break failed or the gap was misclassified.
How do I tell a breakaway gap from a common gap?
Location, volume, and follow-through. A breakaway gap opens through the boundary of a defined structure on expanded volume and keeps going; a common gap opens inside an established range on unremarkable volume and fades. The label is partly retrospective: if the break holds, it was breakaway; if price fills the window and stalls, it was common.
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