The first phase of the Wyckoff market cycle, in which professional operators quietly buy stock from discouraged sellers after a bear market while the price trades sideways in a range. The campaign is executed as a military-style operation: net buying on every dip, occasional selling spikes to suppress premature rallies, and a final test or shake-out that flushes the last weak holders before the mark-up begins. Recognising accumulation in real time—through relative strength versus the parent index, low volume on rallies within the range, and a progressive decline of volume on down-bars—is the core skill that allows a trader to enter near the bottom of a new bull cycle.