real life case study for you today
a student of mine inside IFT
47 trades.
32 winners.
Still lost money.
how?
every losing trade had the same fingerprint.
perfect entry. price sweeps stop by 2 pips. then runs 150 pips in the original direction.
classic hunt.
a ton you might be getting picked off and calling it "bad luck."
your good, you need to be there to understand
let’s jump in
here's what's really happening
liquidity.
"It's where big orders sit."
"areas where price reverses."
cool story.
but knowing liquidity exists and knowing where it gets swept...
two different games entirely.
you see support. multiple touches. looks clean.
you buy the bounce. stop below support.
price breaks through. hits your stop. immediately reverses back above.
congratulations.
you just fed the machine.
the hunt
smart money doesn't care about your lines.
they care about efficiency.
massive orders need to be filled without moving price against themselves.
so they hunt.
push price just far enough to trigger retail stops.
collect that liquidity.
then move in their intended direction.
your stop loss becomes their entry point.
you're not wrong about direction.
you're just standing exactly where they need to collect orders.
the shift
once i understood this...
i stopped trying to avoid sweeps.
started positioning for them.
instead of placing stops where everyone else does...
I wait for the sweep to happen.
then enter in the real direction.
three types that matter
buy-side liquidity sits above previous highs.
retail buy stops. smart money filling shorts.
sell-side liquidity sits below previous lows.
retail stop losses. smart money filling longs.
internal liquidity exists within ranges.
those equal highs and lows that scream "sweep me."
most traders see these levels and think "support" or "resistance."
i see magnets.
price will get pulled there eventually.
why you still lose
you know liquidity exists.
but you don't know how to use it.
you identify a pool. then immediately try to fade it.
wrong.
the key isn't predicting if liquidity gets swept.
it's positioning correctly when it does.
not all sweeps lead to reversals.
some lead to continuations.
knowing the difference...
that's game.
the tool
got tired of manually marking every level.
Personally built something that does it automatically.
identifies buy-side and sell-side liquidity in real-time.
shows you exactly where the pools sit.
updates as new levels form.
your right
the indicator is just a tool.
but add it together with the real edge,
now you're dangerous
what actually matters
stop trying to predict where price will go.
start understanding where price needs to go to collect orders.
two different games.
one keeps you guessing.
the other gives you an edge.
reality
you can learn this from free content.
Case example this newsletters
Youtube. X. trial and error.
Will it work? eventually.
Will it take years? also yes.
I spent three years figuring out concepts I could have learned in three months.
information without structure is just noise.
not because free content doesn't work.
because structured learning works faster.
every single day...
retail traders get their stops swept while smart money fills orders.
It's not personal.
it's not manipulation.
It's just business.
the question is...
Atif
freedom capital
