What is a liquidity sweep in the smart money concept?
Liquidity is a fundamental concept in trading, and we have covered it in detail in our article: What Is Liquidity in Trading? In simple terms, liquidity reflects the number of active participants in the market.The more buyers and sellers there are, and the larger their order volumes, the higher the liquidity. As a result, the bid-ask spread narrows, and large orders can be executed without significantly impacting the price.
Where does Smart Money find liquidity for their order books?
In the ICT (Inner Circle Trader) strategy, major players look for liquidity in areas where retail traders’ stop orders are clustered. These zones are typically found beyond swing highs, swing lows, and key support or resistance levels. Since market movements are algorithmic, the price is drawn to these zones to trigger stop orders, create a liquidity surge, and provide Smart Money with optimal entry opportunities.
What is a liquidity sweep?
A liquidity sweep is a term from the ICT (Inner Circle Trader) strategy that refers to the process of liquidity being “swept,” “taken out,” or “absorbed.” This means that valuable assets shift from retail traders to Smart Money. Once the liquidity is swept, the market often changes direction.
How do liquidity sweeps function?
- The price reaches a zone where retail traders’ orders are concentrated.
- This triggers a liquidity spike, activating stop-losses and opening positions in the direction of the expected breakout.
- Smart Money then uses this liquidity to fill their large orders, which often leads to a market reversal.
How to use liquidity sweeps in trading?
Traders following the Smart Money Concept look for liquidity sweeps as potential reversal points in the market. To spot these, they watch for the price breaking key swing highs or lows, then losing momentum and forming reversal signs after a false breakout. Once the liquidity sweep has been found, traders are advised to wait for a Market Structure Shift (MSS). The entry is often made on a retest of an Order Block or Fair Value Gap (FVG).
What is a liquidity grab?
The processes we described above are known as a liquidity sweep, but the term liquidity grab is also used to refer to the same concept.
That said, there are some nuances. Some sources highlight a difference between a liquidity sweep vs a liquidity grab:
- A liquidity grab happens when the price quickly breaks through a level containing liquidity;
- A liquidity sweep occurs when the price enters a liquidity zone and stays there for a while, forming a trading range.
The distinction between these terms is not always clear, especially depending on the chosen timeframe.
What Is the ICT Trading Method?
ICT (Inner Circle Trader) is the alias of Michael Huddleston, an American trader who runs a popular YouTube channel focused on trading education. He developed the Smart Money Concept (SMC) strategy, which revolves around analyzing market structure and the actions of major market players. This method places particular focus on liquidity zones, Fair Value Gaps (FVG), Order Blocks, and the idea that price movements follow algorithmic patterns.
📌 You can learn more about this in the article: What Is the Smart Money Concept and How Does the ICT Trading Strategy Work?