Breaker Block
Also: breaker, bullish breaker, bearish breaker
A {direction} breaker block is the most recent swing {high/low} formed between two lows (bullish) / two highs (bearish), where one of those lows (bullish) / highs (bearish) is violated in a stop-run, followed by a market structure shift in the opposite direction. Specifically: Bullish breaker — an up-close candle at the most recent swing high prior to an old low being violated; when the market runs sell stops below the old low and then breaks above the swing high, that swing high becomes a bullish breaker support level. Bearish breaker — a down-close candle at the most recent swing low prior to an old high being violated; when buy stops above the old high are run and the market then breaks below the swing low, that swing low becomes a bearish breaker resistance level. In both cases the breaker is the level where trapped counterparty positions will seek to mitigate losses when price retraces to it.
Identification5
- Identify two sequential {direction}-same lows (bullish) / highs (bearish) with a swing {high/low} formed between them.
- One of the outer lows (bullish) / highs (bearish) must be violated in a stop-run — sell stops taken below an old low (bullish) / buy stops taken above an old high (bearish).
- After the stop-run, the market must show a significant repricing (displacement) in the opposite direction that breaks through the swing high between the two lows (bullish) / the swing low between the two highs (bearish) — this market structure shift confirms the breaker.
- The breaker level is the body range of the last up-close candle at/near that swing high (bullish) / the last down-close candle at/near that swing low (bearish).
- Use the highest up-close candle prior to the drop when multiple candidates exist (bullish) — 'the highest one prior to the drop down and we're using the entire range.'
Entry3
- Wait for price to retrace back into the {direction} breaker block level (the swing high body for bullish / swing low body for bearish) after the market structure shift.
- Enter long (bullish) / short (bearish) as price trades inside the breaker candle body range.
- The entire body range is the entry zone — ICT says 'It's trading inside the range that's created with this last up candle.'
Stop1
- Not explicitly stated in this file; by structural logic the stop is placed beyond the far extreme of the breaker candle body — below the low of the bullish breaker candle body / above the high of the bearish breaker candle body.
Target6
- Higher objectives in price after the breaker is confirmed — ICT references 'higher objectives to be met in price action' and 'range expansion to the upside' (bullish).
- Target is not explicitly quantified in this file; use external range liquidity levels (buy stops above old highs / sell stops below old lows) as targets consistent with order block targeting rules.
- [2023 refinement] Bread-and-butter target: -1 standard deviation of the A-to-B price leg projected beyond point B.
- [2023 refinement] Confluence target: the negative SD level that agrees with an existing higher-timeframe liquidity pool (old high, buy stops, weekly volume imbalance).
- [2023 refinement] TGIF pullback depth: -2 standard deviation of A-to-B leg.
- [2023 refinement] Extended targets: -3, -4, -6.5, -7.5 SDs when higher-timeframe bias and weekly volume imbalance support.
Invalidation2
- If the market does not produce a clear market structure shift (break of the swing high/low) after the stop-run, the potential breaker is not yet confirmed.
- Price trading convincingly beyond the full body of the breaker candle without reversing removes the setup.
Inferred Conditions (Unvalidated)
- Stop placement below the breaker candle body (bullish) / above the breaker candle body (bearish) — inferred from ICT's mitigation block stop logic applied symmetrically, since the file does not state a stop rule explicitly.
- [2023 confirmed] Stop below CE (mean threshold) of the breaker candle range. One-tick mohawk below stop is allowable without invalidation.
- [2023 confirmed] A-to-B measurement excludes the manipulation/stop-run leg — that leg is 'time distortion' and should not inflate the measured range.
- [2023 confirmed] Two-stage liquidity engagement required for highest-precision bearish breakers: short-term + higher-timeframe buy-side liquidity must both be run before treating the pattern as confirmed.
ICT Quotes
"If you understand what the breakers doing, it's indicating that it's running a stop pool of liquidity out."
"recapitalize is all the selling they sold here that drove prices down to take these sell stops out there underwater are losing money here. They have deeper pockets in the US they wait for price to get back to an area where they can mitigate those shorts and add new Long's and that's why you see that explosive price action seen here."
"those individuals that were short at that high, they're going to want to take those positions off and maybe get in sync with a new leg higher in price."
"This A to B price leg, you take that leg from high down to the low and you lay your Fibonacci on that. And then you do your standard deviations lower. Whatever this range is, from here to here, one standard deviation lower. That is the easiest bread and butter approach to using the breaker."
"Look at the date. July 2 2023, everything changes with breakers after today. You don't know it yet. So don't go out there and start making videos with it."
"There are two ways to use the breaker. There are two stages of liquidity for the highest form of precision with my breaker. You'll always have the short term buy-side liquidity above the short term high but it's going to want to reach into a higher timeframe buy-side liquidity."
"All this is the manipulation. So with this out of the equation, think of this as time distortion. It's running from the low to the high and to get that liquidity. But once it does that, ignore it for a second. We're using the price leg from A to B."
Timeframes
Version History5 versions
29-ICT Mentorship Core Content - Month 4 - ICT Breaker Block.srt
"we use that as a resistance level that's broken that will become support making it a bullish breaker"
ICT YT - 2022-02-16 - ICT Mentorship 2022 Episode 10.srt
""High, low, higher high — that's your breaker block pattern. The old high that was taken out — that area becomes a resistance level on the retrace.""
Breaker block referenced in passing in the 2022 mentorship (Ep 10) in the context of index futures market structure analysis. The 2022 usage confirms the 2016 definition is still active. No substantive additions to the definition in 2022 — the major refinements come in the 2023 mentorship (A-to-B leg, standard deviations).
ICT YT - 2023-07-03 - ICT Mentorship 2023 - Advanced Theory On ICT Breaker.srt
"This is a bearish breaker. There's two ways to use the breaker. There are two stages of liquidity for the highest form of precision with my breaker. You'll always have the short term buy-side liquidit…"
Major 2023 refinements: (1) A-to-B price leg introduced — the impulse leg (low to high for bullish, high to low for bearish) is the Fibonacci anchor for standard deviation projections. The manipulation run (stop-run) is EXCLUDED from the A-to-B measurement and treated as 'time distortion.' (2) Standard deviation targeting from A-to-B: -1 SD is the bread-and-butter target; -2 SD for TGIF retracement; -6.5 SD confirms confluence with higher-timeframe liquidity. (3) Two-stage liquidity requirement for highest precision: short-term + higher timeframe liquidity pools must both be engaged before the breaker reprices. (4) Entry INSIDE the A-to-B price leg is valid — no requirement to wait for price to break above the trigger high (for bullish). (5) Time distortion: the manipulation run between A and B is explicitly ignored when measuring the A-to-B range. (6) 'Everything changes with breakers after today' — ICT marks July 2 2023 as a formal update to his breaker teaching.
ICT YT - 2023-07-19 - ICT Mentorship 2023 - ICT Reaper PD Array Introduction and Market Review.srt
"A Reaper inversion fair value gap is when you're inside of a breaker, you're going to cut through candles. A Reaper is a fair value gap in a discount of the impulsive price leg of a bullish breaker."
ICT Reaper introduced as a sub-structure within the breaker's A-to-B impulse leg. A FVG in the discount portion of a bullish breaker's impulse leg = bullish Reaper entry zone. See ict-reaper.yaml.
ICT YT - 2023-09-22 - ICT Mentorship 2023 - High Frequency Trading Algorithmic Entries September 22 2023.srt
"Entering inside of the breaker — the breaker is the highest up close candle in the swing prior to a lower low being met. I can be a buyer anywhere in here. I'm not requiring price to trade in a normal…"
HFT entry technique: scale into breaker on 1m/15s chart, pyramid on each revisit, progressive stop rolling. Mohawk allowance (one tick below stop) confirmed. See hft-algorithmic-entries.yaml.
Notes
The file opens by framing the breaker as "a form of mitigation" — connecting it explicitly to the mitigation block concept. The key distinction from a mitigation block: in a mitigation block the prior swing range is the re-entry zone; in a breaker block the specific swing high (bullish) / swing low (bearish) between the two stop-run lows/highs is the re-entry zone. ICT provides verbatim definitions for both bullish and bearish variants in this file (blocks 24 and 15 respectively), making this one of the more codifiable entries in the month 4 content. Stop placement rule is INFERRED from 2016 file — the 2023 file provides clearer stop context: stop below CE (mean threshold) of breaker candle, with mohawk allowance. Target rules significantly refined in 2023: A-to-B standard deviation projections replace the vague "higher objectives" from 2016. -1 SD = bread-and-butter target. ICT declares July 2 2023 as a formal breaking point: "everything changes with breakers after today." The 2023 version is the operative definition. Related concepts: ict-reaper.yaml (sub-structure entry), hft-algorithmic-entries.yaml (execution technique), standard-deviation-projections.yaml (targeting), institutional-order-flow.yaml (mitigation block hierarchy clarification).