The sweep is not the entry.

What a sweep actually is

Some levels are obvious to everyone: yesterday's high and low, the session's high and low, clean double tops and bottoms. Because everyone can see them, everyone's stops sit just beyond them. When price runs through, those stops fire together. That run is a sweep.

Messy levels buried in chop hold fewer orders, so price has less reason to visit them.

Sweep, reclaim, shift. In that order.

1. The sweep. Price takes an obvious low. Stops fire. This is the setup, not the entry.
2. The reclaim. A candle closes back above the low: sellers pushed under it and couldn't stay. A close that stays below means they're winning. Stand down.
3. The shift. Price breaks the last small lower high from the drop. Sellers just lost the swing they were defending. Now there's a trade: enter on the pullback, stop beyond the sweep, target the next obvious level.

Skip a step and you're guessing. Size from the dollars you're willing to lose, never from a feeling. MK Trading Desk does that math for you: set the stop and the order ticket works out the lots.

A valid loss isn't a broken system

All three steps can line up and the trade still stops out. That's a valid loss, and it's part of the plan. Judge the process, not one result.

Picture a day with three chances. The first has nothing lined up, so you skip it. The second does all three steps and wins 2R. The third does all three and loses 1R. The day closes up 1R, and every decision in it was right.

When to sit on your hands

• Any one of the three steps is missing.
• Price sweeps the level and keeps closing beyond it.
• Price is nowhere near an obvious level.
• You're about to click before the candle closes.

Waiting is the plan working.