Lesson 1 of the free CRTLAB trading course. Numbers from every 15-minute gold gap, 1 Jul 2022 to 18 Sept 2026; all 13 markets on the fair value gap statistics page.
A fair value gap (FVG) is a three-candle pattern where the first and third candles don't overlap. In a bullish FVG, candle 1's high is below candle 3's low; in a bearish one, candle 1's low is above candle 3's high. The band between them is the gap: prices the market crossed so fast that almost nothing traded there.
Find a large candle (candle 2). Look at the candle before it and the one after it. If their wicks don't overlap, the space between candle 1's wick and candle 3's wick is a fair value gap.
No. On gold's 15-minute chart, 86.7% of 15,456 gaps filled completely within 24 hours. A fake gap placed the same distance from price filled 86.9% of the time, so the fill rate mostly reflects how close the gap is, not a pull from the gap itself.
Consequent encroachment is ICT's name for the 50% midpoint of a fair value gap. On gold, price reached the midpoint of 74% of 15-minute gaps within four hours and 89% within a day.
A bullish FVG forms when price moves up fast: the gap sits below price, between candle 1's high and candle 3's low. A bearish FVG forms when price drops fast: the gap sits above price, between candle 3's high and candle 1's low.
Measured honestly, no. Buying or selling the first touch of every gold FVG with a stop at the far edge and a 2R target won 27% of 13,181 trades and averaged −0.19R per trade before costs. Traders combine gaps with context: session, higher-timeframe direction and liquidity.
Yes. Every lesson is free with no signup. Practising on the full chart uses CRTLAB's free daily candles.
