A lot of people ask me: How do you know where to enter?
Retail traders watch moving averages and MACD, and always chase the price. Institutions, meanwhile, have already left their cost zones right there in the candlesticks. They’re called Order Blocks (OBs).
The essence of an OB is simple: institutions build large positions in a certain area, driving the price rapidly away from it. The last opposing candle before that move is the OB.
Today, BTC gave us a textbook example.
Price surged from around $80,200 and broke above $82,000. The closing range of the last bearish candle before the acceleration was roughly $80,400–$80,800—that’s the Bullish OB. The institutions’ cost basis is buried there.
After that, price climbed all the way to around $81,895, where it started to stall. Many people thought it was about to drop and started shorting.
But if you understand OBs, there’s only one question: Has price retested the OB? No. So don’t short—wait for the retest.
Three practical steps for trading OBs:
Step 1: Find the starting point of the move—the opposing candle is the OB zone.
Step 2: After price moves away from the OB, wait for it to pull back into the OB zone.
Step 3: Wait for a confirmation candle showing direction within the OB zone (don’t jump in early), then enter with a stop-loss placed below the lower boundary of the OB.
The most common mistake retail traders make is treating an OB as support and buying immediately, without waiting for a retest and confirmation. Institutions know where you’ve placed your stop-loss—they may sweep down first, then push price back up. This is called an OB liquidity sweep and reversal. Wait patiently for the lower boundary of the OB to be tested and hold before entering; the win rate is completely different.
Remember this: Institutional footprints never disappear—they’re simply stepped on again by price.
Follow me for live streams and SMC lessons every night at 21:00
🌿 Surname Zhao, no promises | Not financial advice
#BTC #SMC #OrderBlock
Retail traders watch moving averages and MACD, and always chase the price. Institutions, meanwhile, have already left their cost zones right there in the candlesticks. They’re called Order Blocks (OBs).
The essence of an OB is simple: institutions build large positions in a certain area, driving the price rapidly away from it. The last opposing candle before that move is the OB.
Today, BTC gave us a textbook example.
Price surged from around $80,200 and broke above $82,000. The closing range of the last bearish candle before the acceleration was roughly $80,400–$80,800—that’s the Bullish OB. The institutions’ cost basis is buried there.
After that, price climbed all the way to around $81,895, where it started to stall. Many people thought it was about to drop and started shorting.
But if you understand OBs, there’s only one question: Has price retested the OB? No. So don’t short—wait for the retest.
Three practical steps for trading OBs:
Step 1: Find the starting point of the move—the opposing candle is the OB zone.
Step 2: After price moves away from the OB, wait for it to pull back into the OB zone.
Step 3: Wait for a confirmation candle showing direction within the OB zone (don’t jump in early), then enter with a stop-loss placed below the lower boundary of the OB.
The most common mistake retail traders make is treating an OB as support and buying immediately, without waiting for a retest and confirmation. Institutions know where you’ve placed your stop-loss—they may sweep down first, then push price back up. This is called an OB liquidity sweep and reversal. Wait patiently for the lower boundary of the OB to be tested and hold before entering; the win rate is completely different.
Remember this: Institutional footprints never disappear—they’re simply stepped on again by price.
Follow me for live streams and SMC lessons every night at 21:00
🌿 Surname Zhao, no promises | Not financial advice
#BTC #SMC #OrderBlock