What Is Sweep?
A sweep is a large market order that aggressively takes out multiple price levels in the order book in rapid succession. When a buyer sweeps the asks, they're willing to pay progressively higher prices to accumulate quickly, signaling urgency. The resulting price movement is visible as a rapid candle extension with the order book's depth chart visibly "eating" through levels.
How Sweep Works
Sweeps differ from normal market orders in their size and aggression — they consume enough liquidity to move price through multiple levels, sometimes creating several percent of price impact in seconds. Institutional sweeps are often split into multiple orders submitted within milliseconds (appearing as a burst of large fills at escalating prices), identifiable through exchange trade history.
Why It Matters for Traders
Identifying sweeps in real-time provides one of the most reliable short-term directional signals. A large buy sweep at a support level signals institutional demand and often marks the beginning of a bounce. A sell sweep at resistance signals distribution and often precedes further decline. Sweep data combined with level analysis creates high-conviction entry signals for day traders.
