What is a liquidity sweep (stop-hunt)?
A liquidity sweep (or stop-hunt) is a quick move just past an obvious high or low that triggers the stop-loss orders resting there, then reverses. The stops provide the liquidity that larger players use to fill their own positions.
Obvious swing points accumulate stop-losses — everyone who bought the low puts their stop just under it. That cluster of resting orders is liquidity, and fast money knows where it lives. A brief push through the level fills the big player's order against everyone's stops, and price snaps back.
Rather than being victims of the sweep, some strategies wait for it: the trap springing is their signal that the level has been cleared and the real move can start. That's the core of the Optimal Trade Entry playbook — enter after the sweep, with a stop beyond it.
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