Every trader has experienced it.
The price approaches your stop-loss.
It touches it exactly.
Your trade will close at a loss…
and the market immediately turns in your direction.
Coincidence?
No.
This is a hunt for liquidity.
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What is 'liquidity' really?
Liquidity is not just money in the market.
Liquidity is primarily stop-losses, liquidation prices, and pending orders of retail investors.
In other words:
> your loss limit is fuel for big players.
Big players do not need to guess where the price is going.
They need to know:
where most people sell at a loss
where traders on leverage will be liquidated
where the market 'releases capital' that they can buy up
And that's exactly where they will push the price.
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How does the hunt for liquidity work in practice?
1. all stop-losses are not randomly scattered
People tend to set stop-loss:
below support
above resistance
'logically' at high / low
round numbers (30,000, 50,000...)
And that's where liquidity pools are created.
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2. big players see things you do not see
They have access to:
order books
flow of orders
algorithms
liquidation maps of exchanges
They do not need to guess – they see fear even before it arises.
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3. creates a false move (fake move)
The price suddenly:
plummets sharply
breaks support
triggers panic
Retail sells.
Stop-losses are triggered.
Liquidations on leverage explode.
And when:
> everyone has already sold...
The price turns.
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4. buys cheaply
Big players:
buys back thrown positions
fills orders
turns the market against the crowd
A retail?
Watches the chart and says to itself:
> 'That's not possible...'
But it is.
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Why does this happen so often in crypto?
Because cryptocurrencies are:
extremely volatile
full leveraged positions
full of emotions
poorly regulated
And where is:
> fear + leverage + greed = ideal hunting ground
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How to survive the liquidity hunt?
There is no 100% protection.
But there are shields:
✅ do not use 'textbook' stop-losses
Supports do not protect. That's where the market hunts the most.
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✅ do not trade with the crowd
When:
everyone sees a break
everyone is talking about the drop
everyone is panicking…
Be alert. These are signals for big players.
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✅ small leverage = greater survival
The more:
greater leverage
less space the closer you are to the guillotine.
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✅ watch liquidity, not just price
The price is a consequence.
Liquidity is the cause.
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Conclusion: The market does not hunt you by COINCIDENCE. But SYSTEMATICALLY.
Big players are not:
smarter
magical
infallible
They are: ✅ capital strong
✅ ahead of the data
✅ psychologically accurate
And you are their:
> source of liquidity
But the more you know… the less you are prey.