What it is
Many traders put stops just past the last swing high or low. That makes those spots magnets: price often trades through them, fills the stops, then turns. This is called a stop hunt or a sweep.
The stop hunt map is a WickSpeak tool that marks those likely stop areas and measures, on the chart's own candles, how often this market has swept swings rather than broken through them. It shows a habit of this market, not a certainty.
How it is calculated
1. Find swing highs and lows: a candle whose high (or low) is the most extreme within 5 candles either side (the swing size setting). 2. For past swings, look at what happened when price first went beyond them. If it poked through by no more than 1.5 times the 14 period ATR and closed back inside within 30 candles, that was a sweep; otherwise it broke and ran. 3. Count the share of sweeps for highs and for lows separately. 4. Find the nearest swings above and below price that no candle has yet closed beyond, 3 each side by default. 5. Draw a band from each swing out to 0.3 ATR beyond it, where stops likely sit, labelled with the measured sweep share.
Settings
| Setting | Default | Range | What it changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| swing size | 5 | 2 to 20 | How many candles either side a swing must beat. Larger finds bigger, more obvious swings. |
| levels each side | 3 | 1 to 6 | How many untaken swing levels are drawn above and below price. |
How to read it
How to trade it
- 1
Note the nearest bands and their swept share on gold or US30 15 minute.
- 2
Entry trigger: price trades into a band and a candle closes back inside the swing. Trade back the other way.
- 3
Stop: beyond the far edge of the sweep wick, plus a small buffer.
- 4
Target: the nearest band on the other side, or 2 times the stop.
- 5
Place your own stops beyond the band, not at the swing, so a routine sweep does not take you out.
A reversal after a sweep is proved wrong if price closes beyond the swept swing and keeps going: that is a break and run, not a hunt.
WickSpeak draws the likely stop bands on the chart, labelled with how often swings on that side were swept, and writes a plain-English reading such as where stops most likely sit and how often they have been swept here. Hovering a band shows the swept and broke and ran shares.
Best markets and timeframes
Works on any timeframe with enough candles to find swings. Gold, US30 and NAS100 on 5 minute to 1 hour charts show frequent sweeps around the session opens.
Common mistakes
- Treating a high swept share as a promise the next swing will be swept.
- Placing your own stop exactly at the swing, inside the band.
- Fading every touch instead of waiting for a close back inside.
Works well with
Questions traders ask
What is a stop hunt?
A stop hunt is when price trades just beyond a level where many stops sit, triggers them, then reverses. It is also called a liquidity sweep.
How does the stop hunt map decide what was a sweep?
A sweep is price going through a swing by no more than 1.5 times the ATR and closing back inside within 30 candles. Anything else counts as breaking and running.
Where should I put my stop to avoid a stop hunt?
Beyond the likely stop band rather than exactly at the swing high or low. The map draws that band 0.3 ATR past each swing.
Is the swept share a win rate?
No. It is how often swings on this chart were swept in the loaded history. It describes a habit of the market, not the result of any trade.