Climax & Dry-Up — the Extremes

Climax volume

A blow-off top: after an extended rally, a huge candle (often with a long upper wick) on 3–5×+ average volume — the maximum number of participants just bought at once. Paradoxically that is BEARISH: everyone who wanted in is now in, and the fuel is gone. Selling climax at bottoms is the mirror: capitulation — the last holders give up at once, often marking the floor.

Volume dry-up

The opposite extreme: volume collapses to fractions of average. In a pullback within an uptrend, dry-up is BULLISH — nobody is selling, the correction is drifting on no supply; trends often resume from dry-up. In a choppy range, dry-up just means "nobody cares yet."

Reading them together

The healthiest uptrend signature: rising on expanding volume, pulling back on shrinking volume. When that inverts — rising on shrinking, falling on expanding — the trend is being distributed. Watch the PAIR, not each spike alone.

Sources

• Blow-Off TopInvestopedia
• CapitulationInvestopedia