“Tops are a process and bottoms are an event” is a Wall Street adage that refers to the top and the bottom of a market (such as the stock market). Mark McMillan wrote in 2012:
 
“Speaking of which, tops are a process and bottoms are an event, at least most of the time in the stock market. If you looked at an ice cream cones profile, the top is generally rounded and the bottom ‘V shaped’. That is how tops and bottoms often look in the stock market and we believe that the market is forming such a top now.”
 
“Tops are a Process. Hope fades slowly. Bottoms are an Event. Fear compels action” was cited in print in 2005.
 
   
QWAFAFEW - NYC (April 26, 2005)
Behavioral Finance: Art or Science?
Andreas Calianos
ARA Behavioral LLC
New Haven, CT
Pg. 23:
Tops are a Process.
Hope fades slowly.
Bottoms are an Event.
Fear compels action.
 
Google Books
Stock Selection for Independent Investors
By J. Todd Krajniak
Indianapolis, IN: Dog Ear Publishing
2008
Pg. 43:
The Topping Process:
Tops are a process often without a staccato catalyst like the Fed raising rates unexpectedly or a catastrophe. Usually tops take significantly longer to play out.
 
Google Books
Market Indicators:
The Best-Kept Secret to More Effective Trading and Investing
By Richard Sipley
New York, NY: Bloomberg Press
2009
Pg. ?:
(As the Wall Street adage has it, tops are a process, but bottoms are an event.)
 
Twitter
English Capital Mgt.
‏@englishcapital
Tops are a process; bottoms are an event.  It’s going to take some time to break this huge rally but it will happen.
9:41 AM - 28 Apr 2009
   
SafeHaven
Tops Are a Process, Bottoms an Event…
By: Mark McMillan | Wed, Feb 1, 2012
(...)
Wednesday marks the likely IPO for Facebook and the bulls are counting on this to rally the market. If we get a “sell the news” kind of day, then this will likely mark the end of the topping process. Speaking of which, tops are a process and bottoms are an event, at least most of the time in the stock market. If you looked at an ice cream cones profile, the top is generally rounded and the bottom “V shaped”. That is how tops and bottoms often look in the stock market and we believe that the market is forming such a top now.
 
The Reformed Broker
Tops, Bottoms & Middles
Posted May 31, 2012 by Joshua M Brown
Tops are a process, Bottoms are an event and Middles are a motherfucker.
 
Because when you’re not at a top or at a bottom, but somewhere in the middle, you spend the bulk of your time worrying about which one of those two you’re closer to.
   
Trading Concepts
Tops are a Process, Bottoms are an Event
Posted by: docseverson Posted on: November 15, 2012
The way that markets move during -Tops- and -Bottoms- are very different; a topping move is a -process- that takes a long time and frustrates the Bears, while a bottoming move is an -event- that’s over with very quickly, causing maximum pain in a very short period of time relative to a top.
 
Twitter
Koen Hoefgeest ®
‏@Hoefgeest
old saying on Wall Street: “tops are a process and bottoms are an event”.
6:25 AM - 13 Apr 2015