Liquidity sweep or plain breakout? The test I use before I touch a chart

[Shadow Trader]

Most arguments about sweeps come from people labeling the same candle differently. Here is the filter I use. A breakout is accepted: price pushes through a level, closes beyond it, and then holds or retests it from the other side. A sweep is rejected: price pokes through, grabs the resting orders, and closes back inside the range, usually within one to three candles. The difference is what happens after the break, not the break itself. That means you cannot label it in real time on the breakout candle. You label it when the close back inside confirms it. Before that, you are guessing. I only mark a sweep after a full candle closes back beyond the level on the timeframe I trade. If I am on M15, an M1 wick that returns does not count. This one rule cut my early entries by about half and removed most of my false reversal calls. Ask yourself: what would have to happen for this to be a breakout instead? If you can answer that, you are not ready to call it a sweep yet.

[FXS HongKong Scalper]

Labelling only after the close back inside is the honest version of this. The two outcomes look identical while the candle is still open, and most of the bad trades I see come from people calling a sweep on a wick that later closes above the level. I'd add one filter: how far beyond the level price went relative to ATR. A poke of a third of an ATR followed by a close back inside behaves very differently from a full ATR push that just happens to close back in.