Patterns › Momentum
Breakaway Gap pattern
A breakaway gap is a momentum pattern in which a stock trades entirely above the prior day's range, its low at least 2% over the prior high, on above-average volume, and the gap stays open, signaling the start or continuation of a strong move.
Stocks forming it recently ↓
What does a breakaway gap look like?
Our scanner checks it as a setup where all of these hold:
- A true gap within the last three trading days: a day whose low is at least 2% above the previous day's high.
- Volume on the gap day at least 1.2 times its average before the gap.
- The gap day doesn't close in the bottom 20% of its range.
- Price hasn't dipped back to the pre-gap high since.
- If the gap was two days ago, today's close is above the middle of the gap.
- Price within 50% of its 52-week high.
- A tight trading range before the gap isn't required.
How reliable is the breakaway gap pattern?
In our most recent backtest (March – September 2026, out-of-sample), 58.1% of the 375 highest-scoring breakaway gap setups, out of 3,354 studied, were trading higher two weeks later.
How are entry, stop and target set?
Every pick comes with an entry zone, price targets and a stop. The targets come from how far past breakaway gap setups actually moved, not from a textbook projection of the pattern's height. The stop scales with the stock's own average daily range, so a volatile stock gets a wider stop than a quiet one.
How is it different from a higher lows + volume spike?
Both look for buyers stepping in on rising volume, but a breakaway gap is a single jump of at least 2% over the previous day's high, while higher lows + volume spike is a quiet base followed by a five-day push.
Stocks forming a breakaway gap recently
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