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Smart Money Concepts
A discretionary, interpretive vocabulary for price action: swing structure, BOS vs CHoCH, liquidity sweeps, fair value gaps, order blocks, premium/discount, multi-timeframe narrative and invalidation. Definitions vary among practitioners and nothing here proves institutional activity or a guaranteed edge.
- 01
Market structure and swing points
Before any SMC label makes sense you need an objective rule for what counts as a swing high, a swing low, and a trend.
10 min
- 02
Break of structure vs change of character
BOS describes a trend continuing; CHoCH describes the first sign that the trend's description may be changing.
11 min
- 03
Liquidity pools, equal highs/lows and sweeps
Obvious highs and lows attract resting stop and breakout orders. A sweep is a brief run through them that fails to hold.
12 min
- 04
Displacement and fair value gaps
A fair value gap is a three-candle price imbalance left behind by a fast, one-sided move called displacement.
12 min
- 05
Order blocks and mitigation
An order block is the last opposing candle before displacement. It is a candidate zone, and its credibility depends on what came with it.
12 min
- 06
Premium, discount and the dealing range
Split a defined swing range at 50%: above is 'premium', below is 'discount'. It is a location filter, not a valuation.
9 min
- 07
Multi-timeframe narrative
Higher timeframes set context; lower timeframes refine timing. Conflicts between them are information, not noise.
10 min
- 08
Risk management and invalidation in SMC
Every SMC idea needs a price that proves it wrong. Size from that price, and expect many ideas to fail.
11 min
- 09
Case study: putting the pieces together
Walk a full synthetic sequence — sweep, displacement, CHoCH, FVG, order block, dealing range, invalidation — and grade it honestly.
14 min