Distribution phase

It follows an aggressive move in either direction, not only a rise. After a hard sell-off the same rebalancing happens in reverse. The shape is a range, but a violent one: long candles both ways, obvious highs and lows getting taken out, and nothing sticking for long.

It looks a lot like accumulation, the quiet range before a move. In real time you often cannot tell them apart, and that is the honest answer. What follows names it. Volume and the candles at the edges give you a lean, and the safe read is that this is a place to stop adding.

This is where a good trade gets handed back. You held through the real move, the chop starts, and you add because the last add worked. Each swing is wide enough to hit a stop and go nowhere. Traders end a strong week flat because they kept trading a range they read as a pause.