Gap basics
What Are the Types of Gaps in Forex?
Updated 2 November 2026 · 7 min read
Every gap-type list online repeats the same four names: common, breakaway, runaway, exhaustion. Those names come from stock-chart analysis, built around a share count no forex or gold broker gives you. Here's what each type actually means, and which ones you can genuinely tell apart on a gold, EUR/USD or GBP/USD chart.
The 4 classic gap types
Chart analysts sort gaps by where they sit in a trend and how much trading volume comes with them:
| Type | Where it sits | Volume | Fill speed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Common | Inside a quiet range, no trend story | Low | Usually fills quickly |
| Breakaway | At the start of a new trend, breaking a range | Significant increase | Often stays open a long time |
| Runaway (measuring) | Partway through an established trend | Significant increase | Often stays open a long time |
| Exhaustion | Near the end of a trend, right before it turns | High, climactic | Usually fills quickly |
This is the standard definition used across chart-analysis education (StockCharts' ChartSchool is one widely used reference for it). It was built for stocks on a central exchange, where every share traded is counted and published.
The problem: forex and gold don't give you volume
Forex and gold (XAU/USD) trade over the counter. Your broker fills your order from its own liquidity, or passes it to its own liquidity providers; there is no single exchange tallying every trade the way the NYSE or Nasdaq does for a stock. The "Volume" indicator on an MT4 or MT5 chart counts price ticks at your broker, not actual trading volume, and that count is different from one broker to the next.
Three of the four gap types above, breakaway, runaway and exhaustion, are defined by a volume surge. Without a real volume number, you cannot confirm which of the three you're looking at. You can see the price jump and guess at the trend context, but the definition itself is unverifiable on a retail forex or gold chart.
What you can actually see: the common gap, by mechanism
The one type you can confirm is the common gap, because its defining feature isn't volume, it's the absence of a trend story: a plain jump across a scheduled closure. On forex and gold, that closure happens twice:
- The weekly reopen. The market closes Friday at 16:59 New York time and reopens Sunday at 17:05 New York time. Whatever news or order flow built up over the weekend gets priced in the moment trading resumes, so Sunday's first price can land away from Friday's last one.
- The daily rollover. The same broker-level close happens for six minutes every trading day, 16:59 to 17:05 New York time, not just on the weekend. Liquidity is thin right after it reopens, and the first prices can jump slightly.
A gap that forms at either moment is a common gap by mechanism: a jump across a closure, not a volume-confirmed breakout, trend continuation or exhaustion signal. That covers most of what a forex or gold trader will ever see labeled a "gap" on a daily or weekly chart. A gap that happens to land right at a level that later turns into a real breakout can look dramatic, but the gap itself still formed the same way: the market reopened somewhere new, and only the following days of trading tell you whether it kept going.
Worked example: a Sunday reopen on gold
Say gold (XAU/USD) closes Friday at 2,650.00 and reopens Sunday at 2,658.40. That 8.40-point jump happened with no trading in between, so there is no volume figure attached to it at all, just the before-and-after price. Over the following sessions, if price keeps climbing well past 2,658.40, some traders will call it a runaway gap in hindsight. If it reverses back down through 2,658.40 within a day or two, GapEdge logs that as the gap filling. Either way, the gap itself was a common, mechanical jump at the reopen; the "type" label only gets attached afterward, by looking at what price did next.
What GapEdge data shows
GapEdge tracks every gap on gold, EUR/USD and GBP/USD the moment it opens and logs whether and when it fills, filled or not. Since Dec 2025, it has tracked 169 gaps across the three markets, with 99.4% filling and 58% doing so within an hour. Gold alone has seen 94 tracked gaps with a 100.0% fill rate and a median time to fill of 50m; EUR/USD has tracked 23 gaps and GBP/USD 52. See every one of them, filled or not, in the Gap Explorer.
How GapEdge helps
Since none of the four classic types can be reliably told apart without volume data, trying to classify a forex or gold gap by eye is mostly guesswork. GapEdge skips that question and tracks the one thing you can actually measure: whether and when the gap fills. It sends a push alert the moment a gap opens on gold, EUR/USD or GBP/USD, with the gap's zone and size, then tracks the fill live so you don't have to guess from the shape of the chart.
Common mistakes
- Calling a gap "breakaway" or "exhaustion" from the price shape alone. Without a volume number behind it, that label is a story you're telling about the chart, not something you've confirmed.
- Assuming the stock-market fill-speed rules carry over. "Common and exhaustion gaps fill fast" is a stock-market observation built on volume data forex and gold don't give you. Check whether gold's own weekend gap fills with GapEdge's real numbers instead of assuming the rule transfers.
- Mixing up a daily rollover gap with a weekly one. Both are common gaps by mechanism, but the daily one is a 6-minute broker-level pause every trading day, while the weekly one follows the full weekend closure. For the exact Sunday reopen time in UTC, see what time the forex market opens on Sunday.
This guide is for education only and is not financial advice. Trading leveraged products carries a high risk of loss.
For the three reasons gaps form in the first place, see What is a forex gap, and why do most gaps fill? For how traders think about the risk a gap carries, see How do traders handle gaps in forex?
Sources
- OANDA, "Forex & Crypto Trading Hours of Operation"
- StockCharts ChartSchool, "Gaps and Gap Analysis"
- GapEdge live gap data
Questions traders ask
What are the 4 types of gaps in trading?
Common, breakaway, runaway and exhaustion. Chart analysts tell them apart by where the gap sits in a trend and how much trading volume comes with it: see the table above for each one.
Do all 4 gap types happen in forex and gold?
The four labels get used on forex and gold charts, but three of them (breakaway, runaway, exhaustion) are defined by a volume surge, and retail forex and gold brokers quote prices over the counter with no shared volume tape to check that against. What you can actually confirm on your own chart is whether a gap happened at all, not which volume-based type it is.
What is a common gap in forex?
A small jump that forms without a trend story behind it, between the open of a new session and the close of the one before. On forex and gold, this is what the daily rollover gap and most weekday reopens look like: no breakout, no trend, just the market picking up again after a short closure.
How do I know if a gap is a breakaway gap?
On a stock chart, a breakaway gap needs a visible breakout from a consolidation range plus a jump in trading volume. On a forex or gold chart, you can see the breakout on the price itself, but your broker's OTC quote feed gives you no reliable volume figure to confirm the second half, so calling a specific gap 'breakaway' is a guess, not a measurement.
Which gap type fills fastest?
Common and exhaustion gaps are generally described as filling quickly; breakaway and runaway gaps, by definition, mark the start or middle of a trend and often stay open for a long time. GapEdge's own tracked numbers below show how fast gold, EUR/USD and GBP/USD gaps actually close, which is the only one of these you can check with real data.
Why can't I check gap volume on my forex broker's chart?
Forex and gold (XAU/USD) trade over the counter: each broker fills your order from its own liquidity, not a single central exchange, so there is no single official volume count the way a stock exchange publishes one. The 'volume' some MT4 or MT5 charts show is tick count at that broker only, not real trading volume.
Is a weekend gap a common gap or a breakaway gap?
By mechanism, a weekend gap is a common gap: the market reopens after a scheduled closure, not after a volume-confirmed breakout. It can happen to land right at a level that later turns into a real breakout, but that is a coincidence of timing, not something the weekend close itself tells you.
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