Spring

A Spring is a terminal shakeout in Wyckoff accumulation: price briefly breaks below the established trading range support, triggers stops and attracts late shorts, then rapidly reverses back inside the range. The Spring is the counterpart to the Upthrust (UT) in distribution, both are engineered liquidity events that clear out weak hands before the real move begins.

Spring quality is judged by three factors: depth (how far price broke below support), recovery speed (ideally same-session recovery), and volume (lower volume on the Spring itself, higher volume on the rally back into the range). The entry is the Secondary Test, a lower-volume retest of the Spring low that holds. With the stop below the Spring extreme. Target is typically the range high or a Sign of Strength breakout target. Springs that occur on higher timeframes (Daily, Weekly) are dramatically more reliable than intraday false breaks.