Wyckoff Spring
A Wyckoff Spring is a brief, low-volume price penetration below the support boundary of an accumulation range that historically served as a final test of supply before a sustained advance.
The Wyckoff Spring is one of the most discussed structural events in Wyckoff market cycle analysis. It occurs near the end of the Accumulation Phase when price briefly drops below the established trading range support — the level defined by the Selling Climax and Secondary Test lows — before quickly reversing back inside the range. The term 'spring' evokes the image of a coiled spring: price is pushed down momentarily, then released upward with force.
The key differentiating feature of a Spring in the historical record was the volume behavior accompanying the penetration. Genuine Springs showed either reduced volume on the break below support, indicating a lack of genuine supply at that level, or a rapid recovery back above the support level within one to a few sessions. High-volume breaks that failed to recover promptly were not considered Springs in the Wyckoff framework; they were treated as potential failures of the accumulation structure.
Wyckoff identified three varieties of Spring based on the depth of the penetration and the subsequent price behavior. A No. 1 Spring barely touched the prior low, a No. 2 Spring dipped further below with ambiguous recovery, and a No. 3 Spring showed a slight undershoot with clear, low-volume reversal — the last being regarded historically as the highest-quality variant. Each variant was tested in subsequent sessions, with a low-volume test that held above the spring low considered confirmation that supply had been exhausted.
The Spring was considered analytically significant because it appeared in historical data at the juncture where discouragement among remaining holders was greatest. The brief new low tended to trigger stop-loss orders and encourage final capitulatory selling, after which the market — with supply exhausted — was positioned for the transition into the Markup Phase.
The Spring concept has been extended by later analysts to other contexts, including Springs within consolidation ranges during established uptrends, though the original formulation applied specifically to the terminal phase of a base-building accumulation.