Ask why price moved and the honest answer is always the same: orders met orders. Liquidity — the density of resting orders at each price — is the fuel of every move, and understanding where it pools is the closest thing trading has to a map.
Why institutions need YOUR stops
A fund buying 500 million of anything cannot click "buy" — there aren't enough sellers at one price. It needs a crowd of counterparties. Where do sell orders reliably cluster? Below obvious lows (stop losses of longs) and at breakout points (entries of breakout sellers). Push price into that pool and the crowd's orders fill the institution's position at excellent prices. The "stop hunt" is not spite; it is logistics.
The liquidity map
Learn to see charts as order clusters: equal highs/lows (double tops "everyone" sees), trendlines the whole internet drew, round numbers, previous day/week highs and lows, session extremes. The more obvious the level, the richer the pool — and the more magnetic it becomes.
Trading with the map
Two practical upgrades follow immediately. First, stop placement: tucking stops one pip beyond the obvious level parks them in the middle of the pool — give them room beyond the sweep's likely reach, at true invalidation. Second, entries: rather than buying the obvious level, wait for the sweep through it and the reclaim — you enter where the trap just paid out. Full technique in Liquidity Sweep.
Once you see liquidity, you stop asking "why did it stop ME out?" and start asking "whose orders funded that move?"
Education only — not financial advice. Trading carries risk of loss; never trade money you cannot afford to lose.
