Concept
Breaker Block
Breaker Block is a Smart Money Concepts / ICT concept. The Library holds 7 implementations, each one a working definition you can pull into Quant.
Top Breaker Block indicators
7 total
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What is a Breaker Block?
A breaker block is an order block that failed and flipped roles. In the canonical ICT sequence (the bullish case), price runs below a prior low to take out the stops resting there, then reverses and breaks back above the swing high that preceded the run. The down-closing candle or series that drove the failed move lower is the breaker: a former supply zone price has now traded straight through, expected from that point on to act as the opposite polarity (old resistance behaving as support). The bearish breaker mirrors everything: a run above a prior high, a reversal down through the swing low, and the up-closing candles of the failed rally left overhead as resistance.
Two readings circulate, and it helps to know which one a chart marking follows. The strict ICT definition requires the liquidity run: the failing swing must first trade beyond a prior high or low, and that raid is what separates a breaker from a mitigation block, the same role-flip without the stop run. The looser retail reading treats any violated order block as a breaker. Both agree on the core mechanic: a zone one side defended, overrun by the other — the Smart Money Concepts version of the classic support-resistance flip.
How to identify a bullish breaker block
The bullish case is described here; mirror every step for a bearish breaker.
- 1Find the raid: price sets a swing low, rallies to a swing high, then sells off through that swing low, a liquidity sweep of the stops beneath it.
- 2Wait for the failure to confirm: price reverses and drives back up through the swing high with real displacement, a break of structure that stamps the down-leg as a failed move.
- 3Mark the breaker: the down-closing candle or series inside that failed leg, typically from its high to its low. Marking conventions vary; some traders use bodies only, others the full range.
- 4Trade the retest, not the break: the zone's job starts when price returns to it from above. A hold suggests the flip is being defended; a clean trade back through the whole zone invalidates the idea.
How traders use it
- As a retest entry after the flip: price returns to the broken zone from the other side and the trader looks for old supply to act as new demand (or the mirror), usually with lower-timeframe confirmation rather than a blind limit order.
- As evidence of control, an order block that fails under displacement is information in itself: the side that built the zone got run over, which supports directional bias the way of the break.
- For stop placement, the far side of the breaker is the natural invalidation; if price trades back through the entire zone, the failed-move logic that justified the trade is wrong.
- In confluence stacks, a breaker overlapping a fair value gap left by the breaking move narrows two zones into one tighter, higher-interest area.
Breaker block vs nearby concepts
Bullish/bearish Order Block: An order block is the zone while it still holds: the last opposing candles before a move, expected to be defended on return. A breaker is what remains after that defense fails: the same candles, opposite polarity, traded from the other side.
Inversion FVG: The same failure-and-flip logic applied to a gap instead of a candle zone: a fair value gap that trades through and then acts as the opposite polarity. Breakers flip order blocks; inversions flip imbalances.
Role Reversal: Classical technical analysis' support-becomes-resistance principle. The breaker is the SMC-specific instance: it names the exact candles to mark and, in its strict form, requires a liquidity run before the flip.
More Breaker Block implementations
Related concepts · Order blocks
Concept family
Smart Money Concepts / ICT
54 concepts mapped · 50 in the Library
Breaker Block FAQ
What is the difference between a breaker block and a mitigation block?
The liquidity run. In ICT's definitions, a breaker forms when the failing swing first trades beyond a prior high or low; stops are taken before the reversal. A mitigation block is the same role-flip without that raid: the swing fails short of the prior extreme. Many tools blur the two, so check which rule a given marking follows.
Why is it called a bullish breaker if it comes from bearish candles?
The label describes the trade, not the candles. A bullish breaker is built from down-closing candles (a former bearish zone) that price broke upward through, so it is now expected to act as support. The name reads forward to the expected role rather than back to the candle color, which is a common source of confusion at first.
Do breaker blocks always hold on the retest?
No. Some are respected to the tick, some hold only after a partial violation, and some fail outright — a clean trade back through the zone is the standard invalidation. Most traders treat the retest as a location to look for confirmation, not as a level that guarantees a reaction.
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