G2C (Gap to Close)

G2C stands for "Gap to Close." It describes a specific price pattern: a stock gaps up or down before the regular session opens, then during the early part of the trading day it drifts back toward yesterday's closing price instead of continuing in the direction of the gap.

A "gap" happens when a stock's price jumps from one level to another without trading in between, usually because news, earnings, or overnight order flow pushed it in pre-market or after-hours trading. When the regular market opens at 9:30a EST, that gap is visible as a difference between the previous day's close and the new opening price. In a G2C setup, rather than that gap holding or extending, price reverses and travels back down (or up) toward the prior close, essentially "filling" part or all of the gap.

Traders watch for this because the previous close is a level many market participants track, so price approaching it can act like a magnet or a decision point. The move gets more interesting to traders when that closing price lines up with another meaningful level, such as a monthly, quarterly, or yearly pivot (a price point derived from past highs, lows, and closes that traders use as a reference for support or resistance). When several of these reference points cluster together, some traders treat that as a higher-probability zone for the stock to either bounce or reverse.

The nuance that trips people up is that a gap moving toward the previous close is not itself a trade signal — it is a pattern worth watching, not a guarantee of reversal. Confirmation typically comes from other factors: how far the stock has moved (sometimes called a minimum move criterion), volume behavior, and whether nearby pivots reinforce the level. Without that context, a stock can just as easily blow through the previous close and keep moving.