Spacing vs Overlapping Trends: How Gary Glover Separates a Strong ASX Trend From One That's Topping
- Christopher Hall
- 18 hours ago
- 14 min read
Written by Christopher Hall, AdvDipFP | Authorised Representative, AFSL 526688 | Updated June 2026
Analysis sourced from Gary Glover (AR 259215), Authorised Representative, Novus Capital Limited (AFSL 238 168)
The difference between a spacing and an overlapping trend is a trend-strength signal read from how a stock holds between pullbacks. In a spacing trend, each consolidation low sits on top of the prior swing high — or leaves clear air, the spacing between the prior high and the current low — and that spacing precedes acceleration. In an overlapping trend, the pullback drops back into the prior high's range; the stock can still print a new high, but it is struggling to push on. Gary Glover (AR 259215), Authorised Representative of Novus Capital Limited (AFSL 238 168), reads this distinction across three states — strong, weakening, and topping. This article covers all three, how a trader applies them to an ASX chart, and the overlapping top that warns a sustained run is rolling over.
What Is the Difference Between a Spacing Trend and an Overlapping Trend?
A spacing trend and an overlapping trend are two readings of the same question: how much air sits between one pullback and the prior high. Spacing means the stock holds above the level it last broke through. Overlapping means it sags back into it. The relationship of each consolidation low to the prior swing high is the single tell, and Gary Glover's anecdotal observation, developed across his trading career, is that this relationship grades the quality of a momentum trend before the next move confirms it.
The concept reached the Finer Market Points community through Gary Glover, Authorised Representative of Novus Capital Limited (AFSL 238 168), who reviews ASX momentum stocks in a recorded weekly session with Finer Market Points. Christopher Hall framed why the distinction earns its own article:
"That's a really good distinction between an overlapping trend and one that's providing spacing — and it's a question we often get." — Christopher Hall, AdvDipFP, Finer Market Points
The question recurs because the same word, "overlapping," carries two opposite meanings depending on context. The reader who has met it as constructive sideways action should hold that sense separately — the disambiguation below sorts the two.
The strength reading also sits inside a wider body of trend-following evidence. William O'Neil's quantitative analysis of 3,000+ of the greatest stock market winners from 1880 to the present, documented in How to Make Money in Stocks (2009) and IBD and MarketSmith coaching materials, found that 90.77% broke out from sound bases during confirmed Stage 2 uptrends. A trend that keeps spacing above its prior highs is the visible signature of that sound-base advance still running — and the trader screens for it on the weekly ASX momentum list, where relative-strength leadership and trend quality converge. For the leadership filter that pairs with this read, see how to apply relative strength to ASX stocks.
A Note on the Word "Overlapping" — Two Opposite Senses
"Overlapping" in this article is a weakness-and-topping signal — a different sense from the constructive use elsewhere on this site. When a leading stock pauses in a tight, sideways, overlapping consolidation that holds high in its trend and contracts in volume, that overlap is constructive — it loads the next move. That is the sense covered in Gary Glover's corrective trend analysis. This article uses "overlapping" in the opposite sense: a pullback that overlaps down into the prior high's range, eroding the spacing that defines a strong trend. Same word, two structures. The test that separates them is whether the stock holds above the prior high (strong) or sinks back into it (weakening).
How Does a Trader Tell a Strong ASX Trend Is "Sitting on Top" of the Prior High?
The strongest trends either sit directly on top of the prior high or leave visible spacing between that high and the current pullback low. This is the cleanest of the three states. The stock breaks out, pulls back, and the low of that pullback rests at or above the level it just cleared — never sagging back through it. Gary Glover's anecdotal observation, developed across his trading career, is that this is the look that precedes the strongest continuation:
"What you want to see from your stronger trends is sitting on top of the high, or some spacing between the prior high and the current low." — Gary Glover, FMP session, 19 June 2026
Spacing precedes acceleration. The mechanism is supply: when a pullback refuses to give back the breakout level, it signals that holders are not selling into strength and new buyers are absorbing what little supply appears. The clear air between the old high and the new low is the visible record of demand outpacing supply. A spacing trend works like a staircase with no broken steps — each landing sits above the last, and the climb is structurally sound because nothing below has been retested.
In the 19 June 2026 session, Gary Glover identified JGH (Jade Gas) as a spacing example — a chart holding above its prior highs with that clear air intact, the structure he reads as strong and pushing on. The practical signals of a sit-on-top or spacing trend:
The pullback low rests at or above the prior swing high — it does not re-enter the old range.
Visible clear air separates the prior high from the current low — the spacing itself.
A tight, sideways refusal to sell off during the pause — strength expressed as the absence of supply.
The trend reads as pushing on, not stalling, even when a pullback is in progress.
That tight, refusing-to-sell pause is itself a strength tell. Gary Glover's anecdotal framing for it is vivid:
"That's just holding the basketball under the water and then popping back up again — a sign of strength that it doesn't want to go down." — Gary Glover, FMP session, 19 June 2026
A stock that will not sink — that pops straight back up each time it is pushed down — is showing the same supply exhaustion the spacing reveals from a different angle. For the moving-average reference that often marks where that pullback low should hold, see how the 50-day MA captures major ASX moves.
Why Is an Overlapping Trend a Warning That Strength Is Fading?
An overlapping trend is one where the pullback drops back into the prior high's range instead of sitting above it — the spacing has gone. The stock may still print a new high. But the new low is now lower in structure than a strong trend would allow, the clear air has closed up, and the advance is working harder for less. Gary Glover's anecdotal observation, developed across his trading career, is that a new high alone is not the signal — the relationship of the pullback to the prior high is:
"Even though we got a new high, that's not as bullish as we want. That's the sort of stock that's struggling to push on." — Gary Glover, FMP session, 19 June 2026
The overlap is the warning, not the new high. Mechanically, an overlapping pullback shows supply re-entering on the way down — sellers willing to give back the breakout level — which is why the pullbacks tend to be deeper and more severe, and why a clean low-risk entry rarely presents. The trend has not necessarily ended, but its character has changed: it is weakening, not loading. This is distinct from the constructive corrective consolidation covered in Gary Glover's corrective trend analysis, where a tight overlap above the trend is a strength signal — here the overlap erodes the structure from below.
In the 19 June 2026 session, Gary Glover named DVP (Develop Global) as an overlapping example — a chart where pullbacks were dropping back into prior ranges rather than holding above them, the weakening read. The three states are best compared side by side:
Signal | Strong (spacing) | Weakening (overlapping) | Topping (overlapping top) |
Pullback vs prior high | Sits on top / leaves spacing | Drops back into prior range | Overlaps repeatedly at the end of a long run |
Pullback depth | Shallow, controlled | Deeper, more severe | Wide, broadening swings |
New high quality | Confirms strength | Prints, but "not as bullish" | Marginal / fails to hold |
Low-risk entry | Available at the pause | Rarely clean | Absent — structure is rolling over |
Practitioner read | Hold or add | Struggling to push on | Scale out / topping risk |
This grading aligns with the broader momentum evidence. Jegadeesh and Titman, in the Journal of Finance (1993), found that momentum strategies — buying recent market leaders — generated 12.01% annual excess returns over the 1965–1989 period. Leadership persists while spacing holds; when overlap replaces spacing, the stock is forfeiting the structural quality that kept it in the leadership cohort.
When Does an Overlapping Trend Become a Topping Pattern — the Broadening Top or One-Two-Three Thrust High?
A sustained run that turns overlapping at its end is a topping structure, not a pause. Early overlap signals weakening. Overlap arriving after a long, mature advance signals something more terminal: the trend is broadening and rolling over. Gary Glover references this through the framing of the technical analyst Bill McLaren — attributed to McLaren via Gary, with no published source confirmed — as the "one-two-three thrust high," a final sequence of thrusts that broadens into a top. The structure is the broadening top, or megaphone: swings that widen rather than tighten as the run exhausts.
The clearest illustration Gary Glover offers is historical:
"Go back and study BHP and Rio — when they topped in '07, it was that overlapping top." — Gary Glover, FMP session, 19 June 2026
The 2007 resource-major top is the archetype. On the weekly chart, BHP and Rio Tinto — and Fortescue alongside them — printed that overlapping top in 2007 before rolling over: a long advance whose final phase stopped spacing and started overlapping, the swings broadening into the megaphone shape. This is a single historical example from one market cycle, not a measured study, and one period's behaviour does not establish a rule. The warning cluster that marks the transition:
A long, mature advance is already in place — the topping read applies to extended runs, not early trends.
Spacing gives way to overlap at the end — pullbacks that held above prior highs now sink into them.
Swings broaden rather than tighten — the megaphone or broadening-top shape, widening highs and lows.
A one-two-three thrust sequence — McLaren's framing, referenced by Gary, of final thrusts that fail to extend cleanly.
New highs become marginal or fail to hold — the advance is working hardest precisely as it ends.
A topping overlap behaves differently from a trend-line break, and the two are worth holding apart; for the acceleration-and-break dynamic, see how an accelerating trend line breaks down. A broadening top is also a structural cousin of the catalyst-driven top — for the news-and-timing version of the same warning, see why anticipated catalysts often mark tops.
How Does Reading Spacing vs Overlapping Build the Conviction to Hold, Add, or Exit?
The practical payoff of the three-state read is conviction — knowing what a trader wants to see versus what they do not. A spacing trend that holds on top of its prior highs is a hold-or-add structure. An overlapping trend that is sagging back into prior ranges is a struggling structure with no clean entry. An overlapping top after a long run is a scale-out structure. Each state maps to a different action, and the map is what steadies the hand when a pullback tempts an early exit or a marginal new high tempts a late add. Gary Glover's anecdotal observation, developed across his trading career, is that the discipline is learned by contrast:
"If you can learn what you do want to see as opposed to what you don't want to see, it helps your conviction to stay with that trend." — Gary Glover, FMP session, 19 June 2026
Knowing the strong look is what lets a trader sit through a healthy pullback rather than sell it. When the pullback low sits on top of the prior high and the stock refuses to sell off — the basketball held under the water — the read says hold, even as the chart looks momentarily soft. When the same stock starts overlapping back into old ranges, the read changes to caution before the price has confirmed any damage. This is the difference between reacting to every wobble and acting on structure.
The weekly ASX momentum list Gary Glover reviews is where these reads are applied in practice. The FMP Momentum Profile — published daily and accessible to FMP YouTube Momentum Profile members — was the source of the momentum stock list reviewed at the time of the 19 June 2026 session, where Gary read JGH as spacing and DVP as overlapping. The same strength grading separates a true relative-strength leader from a fading one; for the pattern-comparison angle on which structures load and which exhaust, see comparing VCP and cup-and-handle formations.
A larger, stronger name Gary Glover noted in the same context was Megaport (MP1) — referenced as a bigger momentum stock holding its trend, the kind of structure the spacing read is built to keep a trader in.
The FMP Momentum Profile — accessible to FMP YouTube Momentum Profile members — included the weekly ASX momentum list and the trend-strength readings Gary Glover discussed at the time of the 19 June 2026 session, giving members early access to the educational data discussed in this article.
Conclusion
Trend strength on the ASX can be read before the next move confirms it — from how a stock holds between pullbacks. Three states tell the story. A spacing trend sits on top of the prior high and leaves clear air; spacing precedes acceleration, and the read is hold or add. An overlapping trend sinks back into prior ranges; the new high comes, but the stock is struggling to push on, and there is rarely a clean entry. An overlapping top after a long run — the broadening top, McLaren's one-two-three thrust high, the BHP and Rio 2007 archetype — is the trend rolling over. As Christopher Hall and Gary Glover frame it, the value is conviction: knowing what to want to see versus what not to, so a trader can sit through a healthy pullback and step aside before a topping one. The supporting Momentum Profile data from the 19 June 2026 session is accessible to FMP YouTube Momentum Profile members.
The analysis in this article draws on Gary Glover's recorded session and the FMP Momentum Profile data, which is published daily and accessible to Finer Market Points YouTube membership. Members receive early access to the educational data that forms the basis of articles like this one. The Momentum Profile readings at the time of the 19 June 2026 session are available to members. For information on FMP YouTube Momentum Profile membership, visit Finer Market Points YouTube membership.
Remember that past performance is no guarantee of future results, and all trading involves risk.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between a spacing trend and an overlapping trend?
A spacing trend is one where each pullback low sits on top of the prior swing high, or leaves visible clear air — the spacing — between that high and the current low. An overlapping trend is one where the pullback drops back into the prior high's range instead of holding above it. Gary Glover's anecdotal observation is that spacing precedes acceleration and signals strength, while overlap signals a trend that is struggling to push on, even when it prints a new high.
Does "overlapping" mean the same thing as a constructive sideways consolidation?
No — the two senses are opposite. A constructive overlapping consolidation is a tight, sideways pause that holds high in a trend and loads the next move, covered separately in Finer Market Points' corrective trend analysis. The overlapping trend in this article is the opposite: a pullback that sinks back into the prior high's range, eroding the spacing that defines strength. The test is whether the stock holds above its prior high or sags into it.
How does a trader tell a strong ASX trend is "sitting on top" of the prior high?
The pullback low rests at or above the level the stock last broke through, with visible clear air separating the prior high from the current low. A trader also looks for a tight, sideways refusal to sell off during the pause — strength expressed as the absence of supply. Gary Glover's anecdotal framing is "holding the basketball under the water": a stock that pops straight back up each time it is pushed down is showing that supply has exhausted.
What is an overlapping top or broadening top on an ASX chart?
An overlapping top is a topping structure that appears when a long, mature advance stops spacing and starts overlapping at its end — pullbacks sink into prior ranges and the swings broaden rather than tighten, forming a broadening top or megaphone. Gary Glover references this through Bill McLaren's "one-two-three thrust high" framing. The archetype he cites is BHP and Rio topping in 2007. It signals a trend rolling over, not pausing.
When should a trader treat an overlapping trend as a topping pattern rather than a pause?
The topping read applies after a long, mature advance — not to an early trend. The transition shows as spacing giving way to overlap at the end of the run, swings broadening into a megaphone shape, and new highs becoming marginal or failing to hold. A single overlapping pullback early in a trend signals weakening; the same overlap after an extended run, with broadening swings, signals a top. The length and maturity of the prior advance is the distinguishing factor.
Why does reading spacing versus overlapping help with conviction?
Each of the three states maps to a different action — a spacing trend to hold or add, a weakening overlapping trend to caution, an overlapping top to scaling out. Gary Glover's anecdotal observation is that learning what a trader wants to see versus what they do not steadies the decision to stay with a trend through a healthy pullback, rather than reacting to every wobble. The structure read provides a basis for the decision, not a guarantee of the outcome.
Where can ASX traders access Gary Glover's weekly trend-strength analysis?
Gary Glover (AR 259215), Authorised Representative of Novus Capital Limited (AFSL 238 168), conducts weekly recorded sessions reviewing ASX momentum stocks — including trend-strength reads such as spacing, overlapping, and topping structures. These sessions are accessible to FMP YouTube Momentum Profile members. The educational data from those sessions — including the Momentum Profile data published daily — forms the basis of articles like this one. For membership information, visit Finer Market Points YouTube membership
Sources
# | Source | Type |
1 | Gary Glover (AR 259215), Authorised Representative of Novus Capital Limited (AFSL 238 168), members session, 19 June 2026 | Practitioner session |
2 | Christopher Hall, AdvDipFP, Finer Market Points. Editorial framing, June 2026. | FMP editorial |
3 | O'Neil, W. (2009). How to Make Money in Stocks (4th ed.). McGraw-Hill. Further: IBD and MarketSmith coaching materials. | Published research |
4 | Jegadeesh, N. & Titman, S. (1993). Returns to Buying Winners and Selling Losers: Implications for Stock Market Efficiency. Journal of Finance, 48(1), 65–91. | Published research |
5 | Bill McLaren — Referenced by Gary Glover, 19 June 2026 (one-two-three thrust high / broadening top framing). No published source confirmed. | Session reference (no confirmed publication) |
All Gary Glover observations in this article are anecdotal practitioner observations developed across his trading career — not formal studies.
Related FMP Educational Resources
Bill McLaren's Corrective Trend Framework: How Sideways Consolidation in ASX Leading Stocks Signals the Biggest Breakouts — Christopher Hall
The 50-Day Moving Average Trading System: How One Line Captures 70–80% of Major ASX Moves — Christopher Hall
How to Identify When Accelerating Trend Lines Break: The Pattern That Signals 50% Corrections on ASX Stocks — Christopher Hall
Buy the Rumour, Sell the Fact: How a Market Catalyst Can Mark a Top — Christopher Hall
Why the Stocks That Fall the Least Are the Ones That Run the Hardest: Relative Strength as a Leading Indicator for ASX Momentum Traders — Christopher Hall
VCP vs Cup and Handle Pattern Comparison — Christopher Hall
This article is based on analysis and commentary provided by Gary Glover (AR 259215), Authorised Representative of Novus Capital Limited (AFSL 238 168), during a recorded market analysis session on 19 June 2026. Content has been edited and summarised by Finer Market Points for educational purposes. Gary Glover has not independently reviewed or endorsed this publication.
This content is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.
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