What is a liquidity sweep?
A liquidity sweep happens when price pushes just beyond an obvious swing high or low, where many stop orders sit, and then quickly reverses back inside. The move 'sweeps' those orders before heading the other way.
How to spot it
- 1Identify an obvious level: equal highs, equal lows or a clear prior swing.
- 2Watch for a wick that pokes beyond it.
- 3Look for a close back inside the range.
- 4A sweep followed by a strong move the other way is the classic sequence.
Common mistakes
- ✕Calling every breakout a sweep; real breaks hold beyond the level.
- ✕Acting before the candle closes back inside.
- ✕Ignoring where the sweep happens relative to the bigger trend.
The ICT and Breakout & Retest lenses look for sweeps of obvious highs and lows and mark them on your chart.
Educational content only. Not financial advice. No pattern or concept guarantees any outcome.
Keep learning
A fair value gap is a three-candle pattern where a strong middle candle moves so fast that the wicks of the candles on either side don't overlap.
In smart money concepts, an order block is the last down candle before a strong move up (bullish) or the last up candle before a strong move down (bearish).
Market structure is the sequence of swing highs and lows.
Support is an area where buying has stepped in before, slowing or reversing declines.
A demand zone is a base that price left sharply upward; a supply zone is a base price left sharply downward.
A breakout and retest is a three-step sequence: price breaks through a well-defined level, comes back to test it from the other side, and holds.
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