Bearish Breakaway Gap
A bearish breakaway gap occurs at the edge of a consolidation, carrying price below the range and starting a new downtrend. Its significance comes from location: it happens at a structurally meaningful level, usually on heavy volume.
- Bias
- Bearish
- Category
- Short Setups
- Scan cadence
- Every close
What has to be true for a Bearish Breakaway Gap to trigger
- A prior base or defined range
- A gap carrying price below the boundary of that range
- Heavy volume confirming the break
- The gap holding rather than filling immediately
How PatternGrade grades it
A better-defined prior range, a larger gap and heavier confirming volume raise the grade.
Every scanner grades its hits A+, A or B from the pattern's own measurable structure. The grading is deterministic — the same chart always produces the same grade. It describes how closely the chart matches the pattern, not how likely anything is to happen; no hit rate or probability is attached to a grade. The reasoning is set out in the methodology.
What a Bearish Breakaway Gap looks like in practice
A stock spends eight weeks between $27 and $31 after a long advance, on declining volume. It closes at $27.40 and opens the next session at $25.10, clear of the entire range, on volume six times average, then closes at $24.60. The range that contained it for two months now sits entirely above, and price does not re-enter it over the following sessions.
How a Bearish Breakaway Gap fails
Price climbs back into the range within a few sessions, converting the breakaway into an exhaustion gap. A failed gap out of a long distribution range is a genuinely bullish development, since everyone who shorted the gap is trapped. The tell is the close: a bearish breakaway gap that closes near the high of its session, having recovered most of the opening drop, rarely holds.
What this pattern is telling you
Breakaway gaps can only be labelled as such in hindsight. The same gap becomes an exhaustion gap if the move ends there instead of beginning.
PatternGrade is not a financial advisor and does not give buy or sell recommendations. Targets and stops shown on a pattern are reference levels derived from its geometry, not advice.
How to scan for Bearish Breakaway Gap setups
PatternGrade rescans every liquid US stock (~4,500 names) for this pattern after every close and returns the hits as a graded list, with the pattern drawn on each chart, so you review setups rather than hunt for them.
Join the waitlist to be invited when sign-ups reopen and see the current Bearish Breakaway Gap list, or browse all 75 patterns.
Bearish Breakaway Gap FAQ
What is a bearish breakaway gap?
A gap that carries price out of a consolidation to the downside on heavy volume, typically marking the start of a new downtrend.
What makes a gap a bearish breakaway gap?
Its position. It must occur at the edge of a consolidation and carry price out of that range to the downside, ideally on heavy volume. The same gap mid-trend is a runaway gap, and at the end of an extended decline it is likely exhaustion.
Do bearish breakaway gaps get filled?
Less often than ordinary gaps, which is why the distinction is drawn. The argument is that a genuine repricing occurred. That said, 'less often' is not 'never', and the range ceiling remains the level that matters for invalidation.
What volume confirms a bearish breakaway gap?
Heavy. Several times average is typical. Volume is the primary evidence that the move reflects real repricing rather than a thin open. On ordinary volume it is the version most likely to be reclaimed.
How do I tell a breakaway from an exhaustion gap?
Mostly by what preceded it. A gap out of a long, quiet distribution range is a breakaway; a gap after an already extended decline is more likely exhaustion. In real time the distinction is genuinely ambiguous, which is why PatternGrade weights the prior consolidation and the trend into it.
Patterns a Bearish Breakaway Gap is mistaken for
- Gap Down
- A gap down can happen anywhere. A bearish breakaway gap specifically exits a defined consolidation, which is what gives it structural meaning.
- Breakaway Gap
- The bullish mirror: a gap out of a range to the upside.
- Bearish Island Reversal
- An island needs a second, opposing gap. A breakaway gap is one-directional and continues the move.
- Descending Triangle
- A descending triangle breaks its flat support with a close. A breakaway gap clears the range by opening beyond it, leaving no orderly retest.
Last reviewed . Structure and grading for the Bearish Breakaway Gap are reviewed against the scanner's own rules.