Markup & Markdown

Markup & Markdown dates the Wyckoff cycle's two trending phases with the confirmation discipline the school demands. Ranges come first, because markup and markdown are only ever entered by leaving one; an exit on widening spread and expanding volume prints SOS or SOW, and the phase confirms once the first reaction holds beyond the old boundary - the back-up for markup, the rally test for markdown. Confirmed phases tint the background; reactions leave stride steps.

How to Trade the Markup & Markdown?

• Markup confirmed: pullbacks toward the stride's rising supports are the continuation play; pauses that keep their gains and resolve upward extend it.
• Markdown confirmed: the mirror - failing rallies at lower highs continue the decline, often faster.
• Character warnings: a broken stride or volume dominance flipping against the phase - the change of behavior that precedes an ending.
• Phase endings: a range resolving against the trend or, optionally, a close through the latest stride step - dated where structure stopped confirming.

The verdict conditions the rest of the Wyckoff-school tools.

Markup & Markdown Settings

• Range Length (default 20): consecutive bars inside the window before a range locks in.
• Volatility Baseline Length (default 200) and Maximum Range Height (xATR) (default 3.5): the compression cap.
• Expansion Baseline Length (default 20), Widening Spread Threshold (default 1.25), Expanding Volume Threshold (default 1.25): qualify an exit as SOS/SOW.
• New Phases Need Expansion (default on): with-trend pause resolutions are exempt.
• Reaction Pivot Length (default 3): legs settling reactions and the stride.
• Volume Character Window (default 20) and Stride Break Ends The Phase (default on).
• Show Dashboard (on, Top Right) plus toggles - background, ranges, stride, labels, SOS/SOW markers, warnings (on), Failed Exit Markers (off).

Frequently Asked Questions

How does this relate to Accumulation vs Distribution Ranges?

Accumulation vs Distribution Ranges works inside the sideways phases, scoring which way a range leans before it resolves. This build owns the trending legs either side of them.

Why do phase labels arrive late?

An exit only becomes a phase once its first reaction holds, and reactions settle Reaction Pivot Length bars after their extreme. Boundaries settle in hindsight, as in practice.

What is the stride?

The stepping structure a phase leaves behind - higher reaction lows in markup, lower rally highs in markdown, drawn as dashed steps. The dashboard counts them and flags a broken sequence.