Wyckoff 101 gave you the four acts. This lesson zooms into one of them: reaccumulation, the sideways range that forms inside an uptrend before it continues.
The vocabulary
| Short | Event | What it looks like |
|---|---|---|
| PS | Preliminary support | the first place buyers show up after a fall |
| SC | Selling climax | the panic low, high volume |
| AR | Automatic rally | the sharp bounce off the climax |
| ST | Secondary test | later re-tests of the climax area on less volume |
| Spring | a stab below the range floor that fails and snaps back | |
| SOS | Sign of strength | the first push that breaks the range ceiling with conviction |
| LPS | Last point of support | the pullback after the sign of strength that holds above the range |
| BC / UTAD | Buying climax, upthrust after distribution | the distribution-side mirrors |
The Wyckoff Phase Calculator on the Technical Analysis page detects SC, AR, ST, Spring, SOS, LPS, BC, UT, UTAD, SOW and LPSY on real Binance candles and labels the phase A to E. It does not detect PS; mark that one by eye.
Four reaccumulation shapes, in the author's reading
- After a decline: PS, a rejection at resistance, SC, AR, STs, maybe a spring, then the jump across the range, SOS and LPS. The author rates this the weakest of the four.
- With a spring: the same, but the range floor is broken once, briefly, before the turn. The author calls the spring the point of maximum fear, and watches it for the long; springs have overshot the floor by five to fifteen percent in the author's examples before reversing.
- After a shakeout: no spring; the structure makes higher lows through the supply tests. The author rates it stronger because the structure is cleaner.
- Early breakout: low, higher lows, a break above the box early, a backtest, continuation. The author's strongest shape.
These grades are the author's judgement from past charts. The calculator classifies the range as reaccumulation and names the phase; it does not grade shapes, and its own label says the directional expectancy of a phase reading is weak. Use both: the shapes to form a view, the calculator as a second opinion.
The Wyckoff events (engine) button runs the platformβs Phase Calculator on the last 150 bars on the chart and marks every event it finds, with its phase read and confidence in the label under the timeframe buttons. On trending tape it will often find nothing, and it says so; that honesty is the point.
Using it as a compass
Find the shape the chart most resembles, locate the current event, and only then bring in the averages and the Fibonacci pocket for an entry zone. Structure first, indicators second, patterns third.
In the lab
Open the Technical Analysis page, select the coin you boxed, set the timeframe to 1D, and read the Wyckoff Phase Calculator: type, phase and the events it found. Write in your journal where you and the calculator agree and where you do not. Disagreement is the lesson; the calculator is honest about ambiguity and so should you be.