Market structure · 7 min read
Liquidity sweeps: when the stops get run
Why price pokes past obvious highs and lows, what it means when it snaps back, and what a failed sweep tells you.
Last updated 11 October 2026
Some prices on a chart are obvious to everyone: yesterday’s high, the first 15 minutes’ range, the high of the day so far. Because they are obvious, orders pile up just beyond them: stop-losses from people on the wrong side, and breakout orders from people waiting to join a move. That cluster of resting orders is liquidity.
A liquidity sweep is when price runs just past one of those levels, triggers the orders resting there, and then closes back inside.
The levels MoneyHQ watches
| Level | What it is |
|---|---|
| PDH / PDL | Previous day’s high and low |
| ORH / ORL | Opening range high and low (the first 15 minutes) |
| HOD / LOD | The day’s high and low so far |
What a sweep looks like
- Bearish sweep (of a high): a 5-minute candle trades above the level, then closes back below it. Breakout buyers who bought above the high are now trapped, and stops above it have been taken out.
- Bullish sweep (of a low): a candle trades below the level, then closes back above it. Late sellers are trapped below.
MoneyHQ also notes the volume on the sweeping candle compared with recent bars. A sweep on heavy volume shows many orders were actually triggered.
A sweep is a sign that the push past the level was rejected. It doesn’t say how far the rejection will go.
Failed sweeps
Sometimes price snaps back inside the level and then, a few bars later, closes through it again. MoneyHQ marks that as a failed sweep. A failed sweep of a high often means buyers were strong enough to absorb the trapped supply and take the level anyway. It turns from a rejection into a breakout.
Where to see them
- On the board: amber triangles on the money-flow lines, and an SW↑ / SW↓ tag on leaderboard cards for a sweep in the last hour that hasn’t failed.
- In Movers → Fresh sweeps: every stock with a recent sweep, newest first.
- On a stock page: the sweep is labelled on the chart and explained in What this means, including how far price has moved since.
Reading sweeps with the rest of the picture
A sweep of yesterday’s high in a stock whose sector is falling, with estimated order flow turning to selling, is a stronger rejection than a sweep in a stock moving with a rising sector. Sweeps work best as a question, “were the buyers above this level trapped?”, that the rest of the board helps answer.
For learning only, not investment advice. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell any security.