Gaps usually represent important areas of support or resistance. A Gap Up will indicate different situations based on the context in which it was formed. A Gap Up in an uptrend may indicate a previous level of resistance has been broken and now forms a support level. A Gap Up in a downtrend may indicate an end to, or a reversal of, the prior downtrend. Gaps provide an indication of a financial instrument's SHORT-TERM outlook.

Tells Me: The price is generally in an established trend (bullish or bearish) for the time horizon represented by the moving average period (21, 50 or 200 bars). Moving averages are used to smooth out the volatility or "noise" in the price series, to make it easier to discover the underlying trend. By plotting the average price over the last several bars, the line is less "jerky" than plotting the actual prices. A bullish event is generated when the price crosses above the moving average, and in this state, the price is likely in an established uptrend. The opposite is true when the price crosses below the moving average, triggered a bearish event.

Tells Me: The recent decline is approaching its bottom, as the balance between buyers and sellers evens out and there's an attempt (though failed) at higher prices. The Inverted Hammer appears during a downtrend with a long upper shadow reflecting an attempt a higher prices, and a small real body at the lower end of the range reflecting an evening out of the balance between buyers and sellers as the bears have lost some control. The price may have reached a bottom and ready to turn higher.

Tells Me: The price is relatively far from its 20-bar average price. The Commodity Channel Index (CCI) measures the deviation of the price from its average value (comparing to a chosen moving average, typically 20 bars). The oscillator is normalized by dividing by the typical deviation, so we get an oscillator fluctuating roughly between +100 and -100. Many traders use these as overbought (+100) /oversold (-100) markers and watch for signs of reversal, but original use was to consider long positions when CCI is above +100 (bullish event), and short when below -100 (bearish event). When the price crosses back in between +100 and -100, another event is triggered to indicate an end to the prior bullish or bearish situation and a possible opportunity to close out such a position.