A couple weeks ago I showed you how algorithms hunt your stops at round numbers.
How 1.1000 gets tagged with surgical precision because that's where retail clusters their risk.
Today were going to build on that and explain why your profit targets are probably backwards too.
Because price doesn't move to where you think it should go.
It moves to refill what it emptied.
The Liquidity Void Nobody Talks About
Every time price moves aggressively in one direction, it creates a vacuum.
Not a gap on your chart. Not a pattern.
An actual void in the order book where transactions couldn't occur because price moved too fast.
Think about what happens when institutions push price from 1.0950 to 1.1000 in three candles.
They absorbed every sell order in that range.
Cleared out every limit order.
Created an inefficiency where normal two-sided transactions couldn't happen.
That void doesn't just sit there.
Markets are liquidity machines. They need constant transaction flow to function.
And voids represent zones where the order book is thin, where liquidity is incomplete.
So price returns. Not because of fibonacci. Not because of support and resistance.
Because it mechanically needs to refill what got emptied.
Like water finding its level after you create turbulence.
Why Your Targets Keep Missing by 10 Pips
You set your take profit at 3:1 risk reward. Clean, mathematical, logical.
Price runs 2.8:1 then reverses. Every time.
You think you're getting unlucky. Or that your targets are too ambitious.
Neither is true.
Your targets are arbitrary. The market's targets aren't.
When price swept stops at 1.0950 then ran to 1.1000, it didn't create a 50-pip profit opportunity. It created a 50-pip void that will mechanically need to be refilled.
Maybe not immediately. Maybe not today.
But that void represents unfinished market business.
If your target is sitting at 1.1020 because that's where 3:1 lands, you're hoping price continues past the natural refill point.
But if the void only extends to 1.1000, that's where the mechanical move ends.
Price might push beyond briefly. Momentum might carry it to 1.1005.
But the liquidity-driven move, the institutional move, the move with actual conviction behind it - that ends where the void ends.
The Refill Mechanics That Actually Work
I stopped using mathematical targets two years ago.
Started using liquidity void targets instead.
Where did price aggressively move FROM?
Where did it create the biggest void?
Where is the order book still thin from the last aggressive move?
That's your target. Not 3:1. Not the next resistance. The void that needs refilling.
EUR/USD sweeps stops below 1.0950, aggressively moves to 1.1000.
The void is 1.0950 to 1.1000. That's the refill zone.
That's where price mechanically needs to return.
Your entry after the sweep at 1.0955 isn't targeting some arbitrary level above.
It's targeting the opposite end of the void at 1.1000.
Sometimes that's 2:1. Sometimes it's 5:1. The ratio doesn't matter.
What matters is you're targeting where price needs to go for liquidity equilibrium, not where you hope it goes.
By the way, if you're still not investing your trading profits into actual assets, you're basically funding someone else's retirement. The same mechanical thinking that makes you profitable in markets should be building your wealth outside of them.
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This Changes Everything About Trade Management
Once you understand price is refilling voids rather than hitting targets, management becomes mechanical.
You're not watching for "momentum" or "strength" anymore.
You're watching for void completion.
Price swept 1.0950, ran to 1.1000, started retracing.
You enter the retrace at 1.0970 targeting the void refill back toward 1.1000.
But here's what most traders miss, if price creates a NEW void on the way up, that changes your target.
Price retraces to 1.0970, then aggressively moves to 1.0990 creating a new void.
Original target was 1.1000, but now there's a void from 1.0970 to 1.0990 that needs filling first.
Liquidity flow is dynamic. Voids create new voids.
Each aggressive move creates new refill requirements.
Static targets based on risk-reward ignore this reality.
Dynamic targets based on liquidity voids align with it.
Monday Morning Application
Pull up any chart Monday morning.
Instead of marking support and resistance, mark the voids.
Where did price move aggressively yesterday?
What ranges got skipped because institutions were in a hurry?
What zones still need proper two-sided transaction flow?
Those voids are your targets.
Not because you decided they should be, but because the market requires them to be.
The market doesn't care about your 3:1 risk.
It cares about liquidity equilibrium.
When you align your targets with liquidity requirements instead of mathematical hopes, you stop missing profits by 10 pips.
You stop watching price reverse just before your target.
You stop fighting market mechanics and start flowing with them.
Talk Soon,
Atif
