The daily chart for copper delivers a nice example of Wyckoff’s third law in action

daily chart for copper

Like oil, copper is another commodity that continues to remain waterlogged in a relatively tight range, building support and resistance levels around the VPOC at $4.28 lbs and also sandwiched between support and resistance levels of the accumulation and distribution indicator. Like oil, the price of copper has breached resistance as it attempts to break away and develop some bullish momentum.

However, let us consider Friday’s candle in more detail. As we can see the spread is wide which is fine but look at the associated volume which looks to be below what we should expect as a result of such a dramatic move. After all, if we consider a possible benchmark candle such as that of the 26th of July, note the volume and price action. The price spread on the day was lower, yet the volume was higher. In other words, if the volume on that day was what was required to propel the price this far, why is the volume lower on Friday, yet the price has moved further? The simple conclusion we can therefore draw is that volume and price are NOT in agreement. In other words, Wyckoff’s third law of effort and result have not been fulfilled and as such we can expect to see the price weaken as this is not a genuine move, but one designed by the big operators to trap traders into weak positions, thinking the price is set to break higher. A nice example of volume price analysis in action.

By Anna Coulling

Charts from NinjaTrader and indicators from Quantum Trading

 

About Anna 2015 Articles
Hi – my name is Anna Coulling and I am a full time currency, commodities and equities trader. I have been involved in both trading and investing for over fifteen years and have traded many different financial instruments, from options and futures to stocks and commodities. I write and publish articles ( mostly for free ) for UK and international publications on a wide variety of financial issues, and in particular I enjoy helping others learn how to invest and trade.

1 Comment on The daily chart for copper delivers a nice example of Wyckoff’s third law in action

  1. Hi Anna,

    Pretty spot on. My understanding was exactly opposite of yours.

    Why cant we say, on July 26 volume is higher because there was profit booking since copper was trading higher for 5 days. On Friday 10 sept, there was no such scenario, hence relatively less volume was sufficient to produce big price spread. Can you point where my argument is flawed ?

    Thanks
    John

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