4 professional entry techniquesWhere you get in and where your stop goes.
There is no perfect entry technique, but professionals use the same 4 again and again: the break and retest, the momentum candle, the structure reversal and the local level break. Each gives a clear entry and a logical stop.
Frameworks you can repeat
The 4 techniques below are frameworks built on structure, market context and the big picture. Used with your own edge, they help you line up entries with the wider context, define your risk clearly and avoid both chasing and hesitating.
None of them makes a trade on its own. The entry is the first brick. Your idea, your execution and how you manage the trade decide the rest.
Price breaks a key level, comes back to test it and keeps going.
A single big, strong candle, often right after news.
The first lower low in an uptrend, or higher high in a downtrend.
A running move pauses in a small range, then breaks out.
1. Break and retest
Price breaks through a key level, a price where buyers or sellers stepped in before, then comes back to test it and continues. You met it in the lesson on mark-up, where the old ceiling of a range holds as the new floor. It is one of the most widely used entries, for 2 reasons: the retest shows that the break was real and not a fakeout, a break that quickly fails, and it gives you a logical place for your stop.
Wait for a break of a significant level on the 4-hour or daily chart, then let price come back to it. Look for hesitation, a rejected wick or a shift in momentum, and enter when price is pushed away from the level. Your stop goes just beyond the retest zone, and your target is the next key zone or a Fibonacci extension. When the fundamentals and sentiment agree, the retest is often the best entry you get before the trend speeds up.
2. Momentum candle
Sometimes the market shows its hand with a single big, strong candle. These bursts of strength usually come in response to a catalyst: inflation data, the jobs report, a central bank decision or a shift in sentiment. Strong candles like that often see follow-through.
Look for a large, clean candle breaking out of a consolidation, in the London or New York session. In a quiet, choppy market or the Asian session, a big candle is more likely to be a fakeout. Enter near the close of the candle or on a small pullback. Your stop goes beyond the candle or the breakout structure, and your target is the next key zone or a multiple of your risk, such as 2 or 3 times what you risk.
3. Structure reversal
This technique catches early shifts in a trend, which makes it useful at turning points. In an uptrend, price makes higher highs and higher lows, so the first lower low is an early warning that buyers are getting tired. In a downtrend, price makes lower lows and lower highs, so you watch for the first higher high. A shift in structure often comes before a shift in sentiment.
Mark the zone where the structure shifted, wait for a pullback that gets rejected and enter in the direction of the possible new trend, with your stop beyond the point where the old trend failed. It carries more weight at a turning point in the big picture: if USD/JPY has fallen for a long time and makes its first higher high after dovish comments from the Bank of Japan, you have a reason to look for a long.
4. Local level break
This entry is built for moves that are already running. Price pauses in a small range or pulls back a little, then breaks a local level, a small high or low inside that pause. The break confirms that the next leg has started, and it lets you get in mid-move without chasing.
Enter on the break or a quick retest, with your stop just beyond the small range. Your target comes from the prior swing on the higher timeframe or from volatility, for example 1 ATR, the average true range, which measures how far price typically moves per candle. This is the technique for adding to a starter position or getting back in after you missed the first move.
| Technique | Where you enter | Where the stop goes | Best used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Break and retest | When the retest is pushed away from the level | Just beyond the level | Breaks on the 4-hour or daily chart |
| Momentum candle | Near the close or on a small pullback | Beyond the candle | After a catalyst, London or New York |
| Structure reversal | On a rejected pullback after the shift | Beyond where the old trend failed | At turning points |
| Local level break | On the break or a quick retest | Just beyond the small range | Adding to a starter, re-entering |
In short
- Break and retest: wait for the break on the 4-hour or daily chart, enter when the retest is pushed away and keep the stop just beyond the level.
- Momentum candle: enter near its close or on a small pullback in the London or New York session, stop beyond the candle, target 2 or 3 times the risk.
- Structure reversal trades the rejected pullback after the first lower low or higher high, and the local level break adds to a starter or gets you back into a missed move.
Key terms
- Retest
- When price comes back to a level it just broke, to check whether the level now holds from the other side.
- Fakeout
- A breakout that fails and returns into the range, trapping traders who followed it.
- Momentum candle
- A large candle with a big body that shows strong buying or selling. Used as a trigger in the momentum system.
- Market structure
- The pattern of highs and lows on the chart. It tells you whether a market trends or ranges, and where the key levels are.
- Starter position
- A small first entry, for example a quarter of the full size, that you add to once the trade confirms.
- Trading sessions
- The Asian, London and New York trading hours. Most volume, and most clean moves, come in London and New York.