A three-candle imbalance where the middle candle's range doesn't overlap — price often returns to fill it.
A Fair Value Gap (FVG) is a three-candle pattern where the middle candle moves so aggressively that its range doesn't overlap with the candles on either side — leaving a 'gap' between candle 1's high and candle 3's low (in an up move) or vice versa. The gap represents one-sided order flow, and price frequently returns to trade through ('fill') the gap before continuing. FVGs are high-probability Retrace zones: after a Reveal, the nearest unfilled FVG is often exactly where price pulls back to.
FVGs are the market's footprints of urgency. Where price moved too fast to trade fairly, it tends to come back and make it fair.
Candle 1 high: 5,840. Candle 2 rips to 5,845. Candle 3 low: 5,842. The gap between 5,840 and 5,842 is the FVG. Price retraces into it 30 minutes later and bounces. Classic fill.
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