Stop Hunt

Glossary · Market Structure

A stop hunt is a deliberate push into a price zone where stop-loss orders cluster — just below an obvious low or above a round number — triggering those stops for their liquidity, then reversing. Stops become market orders when hit, so hunting them lets larger players fill size at better prices.

"Your SL at the obvious low isn't safety, friend — it's bait, and the big boys can see the whole school of fish."

Stops cluster in predictable spots: under swing lows, above swing highs, at round numbers, at the 'obvious' support everyone drew the same way. When price hits the pocket, triggered stops fire as market orders in one direction — a burst of forced selling below a low — and that burst is exactly the liquidity a large buyer needs to fill without moving the market against themselves. The sharp reversal after the flush is the signature.

You can't dodge hunts by trading without stops — running leveraged perps naked is how accounts die. Instead, place the stop where your idea is actually wrong, not at the level every retail chart screams: a stop 0.5% beyond the obvious low often survives the sweep that clips everyone else. Better still, treat the hunt as your entry — flush into support, reclaim, and you're buying where the hunters just bought.

Where forced closes clustered, hour by hour

Related jargon

Questions

What is Stop Hunt in crypto trading?

A stop hunt is a deliberate push into a price zone where stop-loss orders cluster — just below an obvious low or above a round number — triggering those stops for their liquidity, then reversing. Stops become market orders when hit, so hunting them lets larger players fill size at better prices.

How would a trader say it?

Your SL at the obvious low isn't safety, friend — it's bait, and the big boys can see the whole school of fish.

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

Crypto Jargon

Live numbers load with JavaScript and refresh every few minutes; the text above is the page at build time.