↔
Range
Price rotates between a recognizable high and low. The middle usually offers less information than the edges.
Lesson · Market Structure
Ranges, breakouts & liquidity sweeps
Learn to separate a real break from a dramatic wick. The central question is not “Did price cross the line?” but “Did price close beyond it, hold there, and build structure?” The drill at the end asks for exactly that judgement: classify a finished sequence — rejection, breakout, retest, or sweep — from its closes alone.
Wick ≠ confirmed break
Three ideas to master
A range is a negotiation zone. Its boundaries become meaningful because traders repeatedly react there.
✓
Acceptance
Price closes beyond a boundary, spends time outside, and either holds or forms new structure there.
↶
Liquidity sweep
Price trades beyond an obvious level, then rejects and closes back inside. The failed break is the evidence.
Liquidity here means the orders resting just beyond an obvious level: the stops of traders positioned inside the range, and the entries of traders waiting for the break. A sweep trades far enough through the level to fill them, finds nothing behind them, and comes back.
Interactive boundary reader
Play each scenario candle by candle. Watch the close and the follow-through rather than reacting to the wick alone.
28 / 28
The boundary decision framework
Classify the sequence, not a single candle.
1
Rejection
Price reaches a boundary and rotates away without materially trading through it.
2
Confirmed breakout
A close lands outside the range and subsequent candles remain accepted beyond the boundary.
3
Breakout + retest
Price exits, returns to the old boundary, holds it from the other side, and resumes.
4
Liquidity sweep
The failed break, completed: price trades clearly through the level — far enough to fill the orders resting beyond it — closes back inside, and the rejection often accelerates back through the range. Degree is what separates it from a rejection: a rejection reaches or grazes the boundary and turns; a sweep runs well past it and comes back.
Classification drill
Score 0 / 0Labels are hidden. Classify the completed sequence around the range boundary.
Choose the classification that best explains the full sequence.
What to write in your journal
1
Define the range before the breakRecord the high, low, midpoint, and how many reactions make the boundaries meaningful.
2
Record the closing behaviorDid the candle close outside, at the edge, or back inside?
3
Wait for the next evidenceContinuation, acceptance, a retest, or immediate rejection determines the classification.
4
State invalidation preciselyExample: “The bullish breakout thesis fails if price re-enters and accepts below the old high.”