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Order blocks are useful confluence and dangerous religion.

I will only use an OB as extra location confidence after a sweep/reclaim or BOS story. I will not buy or sell an OB alone because it is shaded on the chart. If the block sits mid-vacuum with no session narrative, it is decoration. Invalidation remains structure-based, not "OB midpoint sacred". If price accepts through the block, the confluence failed — exit without a speech.

I also keep markup light on M1. Too many blocks and you can justify any click. After a sweep, one relevant OB is enough confluence; three nested blocks is usually overfitting.

This is confluence discipline — not an indicator pitch and not a request for OB-finder scripts.

If the only reason for the trade is the shaded rectangle, I pass and keep the powder dry.

• OB as confluence or primary signal for you?
• How do you stop OB markup from cluttering M1?

Confluence with constraints.

OB as confluence only, same as you. The way I keep M1 clean is not marking blocks on M1 at all. I mark them on M5 before the session, and only the last opposite candle before the move that broke structure.

The attached chart is an illustration of the only version I'll trade: a sweep of the Asian low, a reclaim, a break of the last lower high, then a pullback into the block under the break. If price closes back below the swept low, the idea is finished and the block doesn't matter.
I'd add a time limit as well. If the pullback into the block takes longer than about 20 minutes, the session story has usually changed and I cancel the order.

I also skip blocks bigger than about half the sweep's range. A wide block gives you a choice of entries, and having a choice is how I end up justifying the worst one.

Do you enter at the top of the block, or wait for a reaction inside it? I've gone back and forth on that for years.

I've landed on waiting for a reaction inside the block rather than a limit at the top. A touch of the top of the block with no M1 rejection is just price visiting the zone, and those were most of my scratched OB trades.

Reaction for me means an M1 close back in the direction of the sweep story, then entry on the next bar. It costs a pip or two of fill quality, but it cuts the ones where the block is simply walked through.

The half sweep range cap on block size still stands. If the block is wider than that I only use the half closest to the break, and the rest of the rectangle gets ignored.

Twenty minutes remains the cancel clock. After that the pullback is a new session idea, not the same confluence.

LondonScalper, if price tags the block and rejects on M1 but never closes back through the break structure, do you still take it? That half signal is the one I keep second guessing.

Plenty of scalpers declare they'd never hold over a weekend, so gap risk doesn't apply. Usually true. But a few ways it slips through:

1. A position left open by accident on Friday evening because the screen was closed in a hurry.

2. A pending order that stays active and fills at the Sunday open at a wildly different price.

3. A trailing stop on a runner that was supposed to be flattened.

Weekend gaps in major pairs are usually small, but exotic pairs and crosses can open several percent away after major news, and a stop-loss order doesn't guarantee the fill price. It becomes a market order at the first available price, which may be far beyond the stop.

A Friday routine solves it: close everything, cancel pending orders, check the account for stray positions. Takes two minutes.

Has an overlooked order ever turned up on a Sunday evening?