SummaryResidual displacements of single‐degree‐of‐freedom systems due to ground motions with velocity pulses or fling step displacements are presented as a function of period T and of its ratio to the pulse period Tp. Four hysteretic behaviors are considered: bilinear elastoplastic, stiffness‐degrading with cycling, stiffness‐cum‐strength degrading, with or without pinching. When expressed in terms of T/Tp, peak inelastic and residual displacements due to motions with a pulse or fling appear similar to those due to far‐fault motions, if the response to far‐field records are expressed in terms of the ratio of T to the record's characteristic period. However, as the latter is usually much shorter than the pulse period of motions with fling, the range of periods of interest for common structures becomes a short‐period range under fling motions and exhibits very large amplification of residual and peak inelastic displacements. Similar, but less acute, are the effects of motions with a velocity pulse. Wavelets of different complexity are studied as approximations to near‐fault records. Simple two‐parameter wavelets for fling motions overestimate peak inelastic displacements; those for pulse‐type motions overestimate residual displacements. A more complex four‐parameter wavelet for motions with a velocity pulse predicts overall well residual and peak displacements due to either pulse‐ or fling‐type motions; a hard‐to‐identify parameter of the wavelet impacts little computed residual displacements; another significantly affects them and should be carefully estimated from the record. Even this most successful of wavelets overpredicts residual displacements for the periods of engineering interest. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.