A liquidity sweep (sometimes called a stop hunt or liquidity grab) happens when price briefly trades beyond a prior swing high or low — a level where stop-loss orders and breakout entries are known to cluster — and then reverses back the other way. The move past the level triggers those resting orders, providing the liquidity needed for larger orders to fill, before price moves back in its original direction.
Stop-loss orders sit just beyond obvious swing highs and lows because that's where most traders place them. A move that pushes just past that level, briefly, taps that pool of orders. Whether or not it's deliberate on any given move, the pattern — sharp poke beyond a level, quick reversal — is common enough to be treated as a distinct, tradeable structure.
Not every push past a prior high or low is a sweep — sometimes it's a genuine breakout that keeps going. Confusing the two is one of the most common ways traders get caught fading a real breakout, or buying into what looks like a sweep that just keeps running. Waiting for confirmation — a genuine reversal candle, or a break of structure back the other way — is what separates a read from a guess.
Scan Mode's structure detection flags a liquidity sweep only when price actually reverses back through the swept level with a confirming structural shift — not on the poke alone — and factors that into the confidence score alongside order blocks, fair value gaps and multi-timeframe confirmation.
Educational content only. Not financial advice. Chart structure concepts do not guarantee any trading outcome.