- The five phases and every named event within them
- What each event proves about the remaining supply
- How to identify the two lowest-risk entry points in the entire structure
This is the schematic every Wyckoff student learns. Treat it as an idealised sequence — real bases skip events, repeat them, or present them ambiguously. What matters is understanding what each event proves, because that is transferable to a messy chart in a way that memorising the diagram is not.
┌─ PHASE A ─┬─── PHASE B ────┬─ PHASE C ─┬── PHASE D ──┬─ PHASE E ─┐
│ stopping │ building │ test │ markup │ trend │
│ action │ the cause │ │ begins │ │
│ │ │ │ │ ╱─
│ │ │ │ SOS╱
│ AR │ ST ST │ │ ╱─╯
│ ╱╲ │ ╱╲ ╱╲ │ LPS│ ╱ ← BU/LPS re-test
═══╪══╱══╲══╪══╱══╲════╱══╲══╪════════╱╲═╪══╱══════ creek / resistance
╲ │ ╱ ╲ │ ╱ ╲ ╱ ╲ │ ╱ ╲│╱
╲ │╱ ╲│╱ ╲╱ ╲│ ╱
╲│ PS v ╲│ ╱
───┼────────────────────────────╲╱────────── support / ice
│ SPRING
SC ← selling climax (shakeout below support, recovers fast)
volume: ████ ██▂▁ ▂▁▁▂ ▁▁▂ ██ ███
climax fading dry spring breakout Phase A — the decline stops
- PS — preliminary supportWhat it looks like: First meaningful buying after a sustained decline; volume picks upWhat it proves: Someone is starting to catch the falling knife. Not a bottom — a first appearance.
- SC — selling climaxWhat it looks like: Wide bar, huge volume, price plunges then closes well off the lowWhat it proves: Panic selling was met by large buying. The last motivated sellers have hit the market.
- AR — automatic rallyWhat it looks like: Sharp bounce on light supply once the panic exhaustsWhat it proves: Sellers are momentarily gone. This rally's high defines the top of the range.
- ST — secondary testWhat it looks like: Price returns toward the SC low on visibly lighter volumeWhat it proves: Confirms supply has diminished. A lighter test is the point — heavy means it hasn't.
The selling climax has a specific character worth recognising: the volume is not merely high, it is often the highest in a year, and the close is well off the low. That combination — maximum effort, price recovering within the bar — is the effort-versus-result signature from the previous lesson, occurring at the moment of maximum fear.
Phase B — building the cause
The longest and dullest phase, frequently lasting months. Price oscillates within the range while the operator absorbs whatever supply appears. Most participants lose interest here, which is exactly the intent.
- Repeated secondary tests, each ideally on lighter volume than the last.
- Volume contracts overall — our engine measures this as the dry-up ratio, late-base volume divided by early-base volume.
- Up-day volume begins exceeding down-day volume — the single clearest discriminator. Above roughly 1.35× is strong evidence.
- OBV rises while price stays flat — net buying occurring without the price being marked up.
- Occasional pokes above the range that fail. These are not yet the breakout; they are the operator testing how much supply sits overhead.
Phase B is where the cause is built. Its length and the volume that changed hands during it are what bound the size of the eventual move. A two-week phase B does not support a two-year markup.
Phase C — the spring, and why it exists
The most distinctive event in the framework, and the most useful. Price drops below the established support of the range — apparently breaking down — and then recovers back inside within a few sessions.
Every remaining nervous holder has a stop just below the obvious floor of the range. So does every breakdown trader waiting to short a range break.
Pushing price briefly under that floor accomplishes two things at once: it triggers all those stops, delivering a final batch of cheap stock to whoever is buying, and it tests whether any real supply is left below the range. If the price snaps straight back, the answer is no — and the operator now knows the coast is clear.
This is why the strongest bases so often make a final low that looks like the worst possible moment to buy.
- Recovery speedStrong spring: Back inside the range within 1–3 sessionsNot a spring — a breakdown: Stays below, or drifts lower
- Volume on the undercutStrong spring: Moderate, or high with a close well off the lowNot a spring — a breakdown: Heavy, closing at the low
- DepthStrong spring: Shallow — a few percent under supportNot a spring — a breakdown: Deep and decisive
- Subsequent lowsStrong spring: Never undercut againNot a spring — a breakdown: Repeated lower lows
- Volume afterStrong spring: Dries up as price recoversNot a spring — a breakdown: Stays heavy on the downside
After the spring comes the test: price drifts back toward the spring low on much lighter volume, and holds. This is the lowest-risk entry in the entire structure, because invalidation sits just below a level the market has now examined twice and refused.
Phase D — the sign of strength
- SOS — sign of strengthWhat it looks like: A decisive advance through the range's resistance on expanding volume and widening spreadMeaning: Demand has overwhelmed the remaining supply. The character of the move changes visibly.
- LPS — last point of supportWhat it looks like: A pullback that holds above the old resistance, on light volumeMeaning: Polarity flip confirmed — the ceiling is now a floor
- BU — back-upWhat it looks like: The general term for that pullback and re-test after the breakMeaning: The second low-risk entry, and often a better one than the SOS bar itself
BREAKOUT CONFIRMING rather than still basing.Illustrative numbers, but the sequence and the volume behaviour are exactly what the model requires. Watch the volume column more than the price column.
- Prior decline
- ₹680 → ₹392−42%
- SC — selling climax
- ₹3924.1× avg volume, closes at ₹431
- AR — automatic rally
- ₹486defines range top
- ST — secondary test
- ₹4021.6× avg — lighter
- Phase B, 5 months
- ₹400 – ₹486U/D volume 1.48×
- Spring
- ₹381recovers to ₹412 in 2 sessions
- Test of spring
- ₹3940.6× avg — very light
- SOS — break of ₹486
- ₹5033.2× avg, closes at high
- LPS — back-up
- ₹489holds above old resistance
Phase E — markup
The range is behind, the trend is established, and the framework hands over to ordinary trend management: higher highs and higher lows, pullbacks to moving averages, stage 2 in Weinstein's language. Wyckoff's job is finished once markup is underway — its value was locating the transition, not riding it.
A base is a thesis with an invalidation, not a promise. The specific failure signatures are worth memorising because they are the difference between a small loss and a large one:
The spring keeps going. Price undercuts support and does not recover within a few sessions. This was never a spring.
The SOS has no follow-through. Price clears resistance on volume and closes back inside within days. Supply that looked absorbed was not.
Down-day volume takes over. Up/down volume ratio deteriorates below 1 as the base ages. The operator you imagined is not there.
The regime turns. A market-wide decline overwhelms individual structures. Base quality does not protect against a falling index, which is why the market-regime lesson exists.
- ☐Did a genuine decline precede this range, and has it clearly stopped?
- ☐Can I identify the SC and AR that define the range boundaries?
- ☐How long is phase B, and has volume contracted through it?
- ☐Is the up/down volume ratio above ~1.35, and do the heaviest days close up?
- ☐Is OBV rising while price is flat?
- ☐Has there been a spring — and did it recover within three sessions without being undercut since?
- ☐Where is the trigger (recent range high), and how far is price from it?
- ☐How many failed attempts at that trigger already? Three or more means real overhead supply.
See it live · Our accumulation screen labels each base by phase — early base, mature base, spring fired, pressing trigger, breakout confirming — and lists the specific volume evidence behind the score.
See bases by phase →In one screen
- 1Phase A stops the decline (PS, SC, AR, ST) and defines the range boundaries.
- 2Phase B builds the cause — long, dull, and where the volume evidence accumulates.
- 3Phase C is the spring: a shakeout that clears the last stops and tests for remaining supply.
- 4Phase D is the SOS through resistance and the LPS back-up that confirms polarity flip.
- 5The two lowest-risk entries are the test after the spring and the back-up after the breakout.
Check yourself
Nothing is scored or stored — the explanation after each answer is the point.
Price drops 4% below a well-established range floor on moderate volume, then closes back inside the range two sessions later and never revisits that low. What is this?
Why is the test after a spring often a better entry than the breakout itself?