Selling tail

Definition

Selling tail in plain English

A selling tail is a skinny "tail" sticking up from the top of a chart, formed when prices poke up to a high but sellers instantly slam them back down — so those top prices got visited only once, briefly, and never again. It's called "responsive" selling because big players were waiting up there, ready to sell the moment prices got that expensive. Imagine a beach ball you try to push underwater popping straight back up — the market tried to rise, but heavy sellers rejected the high and shoved it down. Traders read a long selling tail as a sign that serious, well-funded sellers think that price is too high, marking it as a likely ceiling.

Learn these first

• Break-even stop
• True Range (TR)

Related Volume Profile Analysis terms

• Ask
• ATR (Average True Range)
• Auction Market Theory
• Below value
• Bid
• Break-even stop
• Buying tail
• Day type
• Excess
• Excess high / Excess low