Exhaustion Gap

Exhaustion Gap treats a late-trend gap as a hypothesis and lets price grade it. A true gap — no bar overlap — becomes a candidate only when the trend is mature and stretched and the gap bar prints climactic range and volume: an exhaustion gap arrives as the final rush, not the launch. Each candidate's zone is boxed and watched: a full fill confirms exhaustion, an opposite gap confirms an island, and one still open at expiry is re-labeled continuation behavior.

How to Trade the Exhaustion Gap?

• Candidate: an up gap late in a stretched uptrend implies bearish exhaustion, a down gap in a decline the mirror; the tooltip itemizes gap size, range, volume, stretch and trend age.
• Re-entry: a close back inside the zone is the early evidence, alerted before any full fill.
• Resolution: Filled and Island outcomes recolor the zone solid; Expired fades it to dotted neutral, with follow-through recorded in the tooltip.

Exhaustion Gap Settings

• Minimum Gap Size (ATR) (default 0) with ATR Length (default 14): 0 accepts every true gap.
• Confirmation Window (bars) (default 5): bars allowed for a fill or island — classical treatments expect quick fills.
• Trend MA Type (default SMA) and Trend MA Length (default 50): the average defining the trend.
• Minimum Trend Age (bars) (default 20): closes spent continuously on the trend side before the gap.
• Minimum Stretch From MA (ATR) (default 1.5): required distance of the close from the average.
• Minimum Prior Same-Direction Gaps (default 0) with Prior Gaps Lookback (bars) (default 50): optional earlier-gaps requirement.
• Require Volume Spike (default on) with Volume Spike Multiplier (default 1.5) and Volume Average Length (default 20), plus Minimum Bar Range (ATR) (default 1.25): the climactic checks.
• Display: Gap Zones and Pattern Labels (on), Trend MA (off).

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I tell an exhaustion gap from a runaway gap?

At the moment it prints, often you cannot — which is why candidates are graded rather than declared. A Runaway Gap appears mid-trend and holds; here the difference is graded as behavior — quick fill means exhaustion, staying open means continuation.

What is the island outcome?

An opposite gap across the same zone strands the bars in between — the island reversal, the strongest classical confirmation. It has its own label state and alerts.

Why did an obvious gap never become a candidate?

Most gaps are meant to fail the gates: too little trend age, not enough stretch, or a quiet, narrow gap bar. Loosening the stretch or disabling the volume spike widens the net at the cost of flagging ordinary gaps.