The Complete Trading Process
A step-by-step process that turns SMC concepts into a daily routine, from higher-timeframe analysis to execution.
Step 1 — Higher timeframe bias
Start on the daily and 4H. Identify the current structure (HH/HL or LH/LL). Mark the major liquidity pools: old highs and lows, equal highs/lows. Decide your directional bias for the session: in an uptrend, you look for buys after sell-side liquidity sweeps; in a downtrend, sells after buy-side sweeps.
Step 2 — Wait for the sweep
On the 1H or 15M, wait for price to sweep a liquidity pool that aligns with your higher-timeframe bias. Do not anticipate — wait for the sweep to actually happen. Patience here filters out most bad trades.
Step 3 — Confirm and enter
After the sweep, wait for a CHoCH on a lower timeframe (5M or 1M) confirming the reversal, ideally with an SMT divergence on a correlated asset. Mark the order block that initiated the CHoCH. When price returns to that order block, enter with your stop beyond the sweep extreme and your target at the next opposing liquidity pool.
This full sequence — bias, sweep, CHoCH, SMT, order block, entry — is your repeatable edge. Not every setup will have every layer; the more layers present, the higher the probability.
One full sequence, start to finish
Follow one complete trade on EURUSD using the entire process — bias, sweep, confirmation, entry, target.
- 1Daily/4H: uptrend (HH/HL), so bias is long. Mark sell-side liquidity: the 1H swing low at 1.1040, plus an old low at 1.1010.
- 2Wait on the 1H: price pulls back and sweeps 1.1040, tapping 1.1035 and holding. No anticipation — the sweep happened, that's your trigger to work.
- 3Drop to the 5M: price breaks the last lower high — bullish CHoCH. Bonus check: GBPUSD held above its low (bullish SMT). Mark the 5M order block from 1.1042–1.1046.
- 4Enter long at 1.1044 on the return to the block. Stop: 1.1032 (below the sweep). Target: 1.1120 (buy-side liquidity above the old high). Risk 50 pips... reward 76 — roughly 1.5:1, and you skip it or wait for a better block unless it clears 2:1.
Every layer had a job: bias picked the direction, the sweep picked the moment, CHoCH and SMT confirmed it, and the block set the entry.
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