Liquidity Sweep

Glossary · Market Structure

A liquidity sweep is a fast move through a prior high or low that triggers the resting stops and breakout orders pooled there, then snaps back inside the range. The sweep collects liquidity for bigger players; the reclaim confirms it. It usually prints as a long wick through the level rather than a close beyond it.

"Price dips under the low, grabs everyone's stops, and closes right back inside — the pickpocket bumped into you on purpose."

Mark the prior day's high and low, the week's extremes, and equal highs or lows where two wicks stopped at the same price — those are liquidity pools. A sweep spikes through the level, fills the stops and breakout entries pooled there, and closes back inside, usually within a candle or two. The tell is the close: a genuine breakout closes and holds beyond the level; a sweep leaves a wick and reclaims.

The expensive mistake is buying the break of the high — you're the exit liquidity the sweep was fishing for. Trade the reclaim instead: after a sweep of the low, enter on the close back above the swept level, stop below the wick, targets back into the range. It's one of the cleaner risk-reward shapes in trading, because your invalidation is tight and everyone trapped on the wrong side has to unwind through your position.

Where the forced orders hit, hour by hour

Related jargon

Questions

What is Liquidity Sweep in crypto trading?

A liquidity sweep is a fast move through a prior high or low that triggers the resting stops and breakout orders pooled there, then snaps back inside the range. The sweep collects liquidity for bigger players; the reclaim confirms it. It usually prints as a long wick through the level rather than a close beyond it.

How would a trader say it?

Price dips under the low, grabs everyone's stops, and closes right back inside — the pickpocket bumped into you on purpose.

Part of the Crypto Jargon glossary — every term, decoded the way a trader would say it.

Crypto Jargon

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