What is a breaker block?

A bullish breaker forms in four steps. Price makes a low, rallies to a swing high, then drops to a lower low and takes the sell-side liquidity under the first low. After that sweep it rallies hard and closes above the swing high. The last up-close candle at that swing high — a bearish order block that did not hold — is the breaker.

When price comes back down into it, ICT traders look for longs. A bearish breaker is the same pattern upside down: a higher high sweeps buy-side liquidity, price breaks the swing low, and the last down-close candle at that low becomes resistance.

The up-close candle at the swing high fails as a bearish block: price sweeps the earlier low, breaks above the high, and returns to the old zone as support.

The example in numbers

Breaker block	1.08440–1.08600 · 16 pips · 50% at 1.08520
Entry (long)	1.08600 — top of the breaker
Stop	1.08420 — 2 pips below the breaker (18 pips)
Target	1.08960 — the next high (36 pips)
Reward to risk	2.00R · breaks even at a 33% win rate

EURUSD prices from the chart above (Breaker block), entry at 1.08600. At 2.00R, this setup needs to win more than 33% of the time to make money before costs. Try your own levels in the risk/reward calculator.

Breaker block: how to spot it

Look for a sweep: a new low below an obvious earlier low (or a new high above an obvious high).
Wait for a break of structure the other way — a close above the swing high that came before the sweep.
Mark the last up-close candle at that swing high (for a bullish breaker). That range is the breaker block.
Plan the trade for the return into the zone, with the stop beyond the breaker or beyond the sweep low.

Definitions differ

Some traders only accept a breaker when the sweep took clear liquidity, such as equal lows, and when the break left a fair value gap. Others draw the zone from the body only. A related idea, the mitigation block, has no sweep: price fails to make a new low, then breaks structure — many courses treat it separately.

Common mistakes

No sweep before the break
Without a lower low that takes liquidity, the pattern is a mitigation block or just a range. The sweep is what makes it a breaker.
Entering on the break itself
The setup is the return into the zone. Buying the breakout candle puts the stop far away and lowers the R.
Trading every breaker in every session
A breaker in the London or New York AM killzone may behave differently from one in the Asian range. Tag the killzone with the trade and compare.

Your win rate on Breaker

A definition does not tell you whether your Breaker trades pay. Your own record does: in the journal, open a trade from MT4 or MT5 and press the key of Breaker under Entry criteria — the most used criteria get keys 1–9.

Reports then show Breaker by itself: trades, win rate without breakeven trades, average R and P&L, and Breaker in each ICT killzone, which is set on every trade by itself. Combinations such as Breaker with another criterion appear once they have 15 trades, so a lucky streak does not look like an edge.

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Questions

›Is a breaker block better than an order block?

Neither is better by definition. Breakers come with a sweep and a break of structure, so they carry more confirmation, but they appear less often. Your journal’s win rate on each is the useful comparison.

›What is the difference between a breaker and a mitigation block?

Both are failed order blocks. A breaker comes after a sweep — a lower low (or higher high). A mitigation block forms when price fails to make that new extreme before breaking structure.

›Where does the stop go on a breaker block?

Common choices are a few pips beyond the breaker zone or beyond the sweep’s extreme. The second is safer and lowers the R; the example above uses the first.