Sustained move
A move that keeps going over time rather than reversing within minutes — the kind a trade can actually be held through.
Full explanation
A sustained move travels in one direction across a meaningful stretch of time, holding its gains along the way. It usually spans several candles, includes small pullbacks that fail to reverse it, and often runs across a whole session.
Its opposite is a burst: a sharp move that immediately gives everything back. Both may cover the same distance, but only one lets you hold a position without being shaken out.
Sustained moves normally need a reason — an economic release that changed expectations, a session opening with real volume behind it, or a break of an important level that the market then accepts.
Why traders watch it
Targets, holding times and position sizes all depend on whether the day is likely to offer sustained moves or just short bursts. Trading Windows flag which is more likely.
Trading considerations
- Look for continuation after the first pullback, not before it.
- Quiet, event-free days rarely produce sustained moves.
- A move without a reason behind it tends to fade.
- Match your target to the kind of day: bursts need modest targets.
Educational guidance only — never a trading signal or recommendation.
Same 30 pips, different day
On release day, EUR/USD falls 30 pips through the London morning, pausing twice but never recovering more than a third of the move — sustained. On a quiet day it drops 30 pips in two minutes and is back to the starting price inside the hour. Only the first one was holdable.
Related indicators
Holding a move
When price stays at its new level after a move instead of drifting back — the sign that the move was accepted.
Continuation
Price resuming its existing direction after a pause or pullback.
First spike
The sharp, immediate move in the seconds after a release or a level breaks — usually the least reliable part of the whole move.