Definition

Expansion

Low-friction directional movement with one side demonstrably dominant. Bodies dominate wicks, candles stack cleanly in one direction.

Full Explanation

Expansion is what it looks like when one side is consistently winning. Candles stack in one direction. Each candle opens near where the prior one closed and pushes further into new territory. Bodies dominate wicks — meaning the territory gained is being held through closes, not given back. The opposing side is arriving but not absorbing at scale. Expansion describes the present behavior only — it makes no claim about how long it will continue or what comes next. As a named market state, expansion behavior is described as a directional state.

In the Book 1 chapter

Chapter 11 · Reading the Current Market

Expansion, Acceptance, Rejection

Friction tells you how candles relate to each other. Bodies and wicks tell you what's happening inside each one. Now we zoom out one more step and give names to what those patterns of behavior actually look like when they accumulate across a stretch of candles.

From the Blog 1 post

The Market Is Always Doing One of Three Things

Most traders are looking at the chart asking one question: which direction is price going to move? It's the natural question. It feels like the important one. But it's actually the second question — and jumping to it before answering the first one is a large part of why trades that seem logical end up going nowhere or reversing immediately.