A liquidity sweep is a move that pushes just beyond an obvious high or low — where stop orders cluster — and then immediately reverses back inside the range. The reversal setup trades the reclaim: the break triggered the stops, and price refusing to stay beyond the level is the evidence.
- 1Push beyond the obvious low
- 2Reclaim — the level rejects
What the engine actually checks
“Looks like one” is not a rule. Detection requires every hard criterion and scores the confluences — fail a hard criterion and it is not this setup, it is a hope with a nickname.
Hard criteria — all required
- ▪An obvious prior high or low with at least two touches — stops cluster at levels people can see.
- ▪A wick or close marginally beyond that level.
- ▪A reclaim back inside the range within a defined bar count — the reclaim is the setup, not the break.
Confluences — weighted, not required
- ▫The reclaim accompanied by displacement rather than a slow drift back.
- ▫The sweep occurring inside a session killzone.
- ▫Higher-timeframe bias opposing the sweep direction.
Trading it
- 1Where you are wrongA close back beyond the swept level. If price returns through the low it just swept and stays there, the sweep was a genuine break and you are on the wrong side of a trend continuation — this is the single most important line on the page, because the two outcomes look identical for several candles.
- 2EntryOn the reclaim, once price has closed back inside the range. Entering during the sweep itself — catching the wick — is a different and much worse trade: you are guessing that a break will fail rather than trading one that already has.
- 3ObjectiveThe opposing liquidity: the obvious high on the other side of the range, where the next cluster of stops sits. Sweeps frequently run range-to-range, which makes the objective structural rather than geometric.
Worked example — real numbers
entry on the reclaim, stop below the sweep low, target at the opposing range high. A valid formation offering under about 1.5R is still a valid formation and still not worth taking — valid and worth it are different questions.
Size this trade against your account →The scoreboard
Resolution by grade, market and timeframe — because a single blended number would let strong contexts carry weak ones, which is how every invented “success rate” in this category is constructed.
| Grade | Market | Timeframe | Resolution | Sample |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | FX | 5m–15m | collecting | no resolved sample yet |
| A | FX | 1H–4H | collecting | no resolved sample yet |
| A | Crypto | 5m–15m | collecting | no resolved sample yet |
| A | Crypto | 1H–4H | collecting | no resolved sample yet |
| A | Indices | 5m–15m | collecting | no resolved sample yet |
| A | Indices | 1H–4H | collecting | no resolved sample yet |
| B | FX | 5m–15m | collecting | no resolved sample yet |
| B | FX | 1H–4H | collecting | no resolved sample yet |
| B | Crypto | 5m–15m | collecting | no resolved sample yet |
| B | Crypto | 1H–4H | collecting | no resolved sample yet |
| B | Indices | 5m–15m | collecting | no resolved sample yet |
| B | Indices | 1H–4H | collecting | no resolved sample yet |
| C | FX | 5m–15m | collecting | no resolved sample yet |
| C | FX | 1H–4H | collecting | no resolved sample yet |
| C | Crypto | 5m–15m | collecting | no resolved sample yet |
| C | Crypto | 1H–4H | collecting | no resolved sample yet |
| C | Indices | 5m–15m | collecting | no resolved sample yet |
| C | Indices | 1H–4H | collecting | no resolved sample yet |
Where this traps people
Liquidity Sweep Reversal vs A genuine break of structure
Both start the same way: price moves beyond a prior swing. A break holds and continues; a sweep reverses back inside within a few candles. The distinguishing evidence is the reclaim, which is why it is a hard criterion rather than a nice-to-have — without it there is no way to tell the two apart except in hindsight.
Drop your chart and the engine checks it against the same hard criteria listed above — the ones it uses on every scan. First read is free and needs no account.
Questions traders actually ask
- What is a liquidity sweep?
- A move that pushes just past an obvious high or low where stop orders cluster, triggering them, then reverses back inside the range. The stops provide the volume a larger participant needs to fill, and the reversal is what distinguishes it from a real break.
- What is the difference between a liquidity sweep and a stop hunt?
- They describe the same price action with different intent attached. "Sweep" is the observable event; "stop hunt" adds a claim about someone deliberately targeting you, which the chart cannot confirm and which does not change how the setup is traded.
- How do you know a sweep is not a real breakout?
- You do not, until the reclaim. That is precisely why the reclaim is required before entry — the two are indistinguishable while they are happening, and any method that claims to tell them apart in advance is describing hindsight.
- Where do stops cluster?
- Just beyond obvious levels: prior session highs and lows, equal highs and lows, round numbers, and range boundaries everyone can see. Visibility is the point — a level nobody is watching has no stops resting against it to take.
- Do liquidity sweeps work in equities?
- Less cleanly than in FX and crypto. Equity sessions close, gaps reset structure overnight, and much of the volume is not stop-driven. The concept is at its most useful in continuously-traded markets where the resting-order logic holds.
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