EQH and EQL — liquidity pooled at equal highs and lows

In plain words

When price is stopped at the same level two or three times, people remember that line. “That’s the ceiling.” “That’s the floor.” And they leave orders just beyond it.

• Below a floor sit the stop-loss orders (sells) of people who bought.
• Above a ceiling sit the stops of people who sold, plus breakout orders (buys) from people waiting for the break.

A ceiling at the same height is called EQH (Equal Highs), a floor at the same height EQL (Equal Lows). Because orders pool there, price often pokes past the line once and “sweeps” it.

The concept

Liquidity — where orders pool

As we saw in part 1, big players need someone on the other side to fill large orders. To buy a lot, someone has to sell a lot. The stop-losses piled below a floor are exactly those sellers. So SMC treats equal highs and lows as liquidity — places where orders pool.

EQH and EQL

• EQH — a new high at almost the same height as the previous high. Orders pool above it.
• EQL — a new low at almost the same height as the previous low. Orders pool below it.

“Almost” matters. Two prices are rarely identical to the cent, so we need a rule for how close is close enough. Our chart scales that rule to how much candles were moving at the time (ATR) — see “On our chart” below.

Real Bitcoin 4-hour candles (August–October 2025; times are Korea time, like the chart axis) with EQH · EQL on.

• EQL — the low of 107,350.10 USDT at 09:00 on Aug 30 and 107,255 USDT at 13:00 on Sep 1. They differ by 95.10 USDT, inside that moment’s threshold (105.90 USDT), so they were paired as equal lows.
• EQH — the high of 117,896 USDT at 09:00 on Sep 18 and 117,900 USDT at 01:00 on Sep 19. A difference of just 4 USDT.

Both were taken later. The 01:00 candle on Oct 2 wicked above the equal highs (117,900 USDT) but closed at 117,439.53 USDT; the very next candle closed at 118,594.99 USDT, breaking out. Price went on to 126,199.63 USDT on Oct 7. Then the 05:00 candle on Oct 11 stretched its wick down to 102,000 USDT, below the equal lows (107,255 USDT), and closed back at 112,774.50 USDT within the same candle.

An analogy

Think of a dam. The longer a wall of the same height holds, the more water builds up behind it. When it breaks, all that water rushes out at once.

• The more times price is stopped at the same level, the more orders (water) build up beyond it.
• When price crosses the line, stops and breakout orders fill all at once — which is why moves through the line are often big and fast.
• Once the water is out, sometimes nothing is left to push further. A sweep that quickly reverses is that case.

In practice

Liquidity sweeps

Dropping below equal lows and then coming back above is called a liquidity sweep. It is read as price triggering the stop orders, collecting that liquidity, and then turning.

1-hour candles (Sep 21–30, 2025). 111,478 USDT at 12:00 on Sep 23, 111,458.73 USDT at 05:00 on Sep 24, 111,450.42 USDT at 16:00 on Sep 25 — three lows within 27.58 USDT of each other. The chart joins them with two EQL dashed lines (first–second, second–third).

The 20:00 close on Sep 25 went below (111,348 USDT), and price was pushed down to 108,620.07 USDT at 20:00 on Sep 26 — about 2.5% under the equal lows. Then the 07:00 close on Sep 29 got back above them (111,938.51 USDT), and by 08:00 on Sep 30 price was 114,311.96 USDT.

What SMC users look at, in order

1. Mark where the EQH and EQL are — levels price may be “pulled” toward.
2. When price crosses one, check whether the close stays beyond it or only the wick pokes through.
3. Wick through and back may be a sweep; a close through that keeps going may be a real breakout. Which one it was is confirmed by the structure that follows (BOS · CHoCH from part 2).

Going deeper

Breakout or sweep?

The two levels on the 4-hour chart ended differently. The equal highs (117,900 USDT) were closed through and price kept rising (a breakout); the equal lows (107,255 USDT) were only pierced by a deep wick that came back within the same candle (a sweep). Same shape, different outcome. EQH and EQL do not mean “price must reverse here” — they mean “orders are pooled here”.

Treat big events separately

The Oct 10–11 crash was a big, news-driven event; the equal lows alone did not cause it. We show it because a long wick under a line full of stops that snaps back is the textbook shape of a sweep.

Combining with other tools

• When equal lows sit on the discount side (the lower half of the range, see part 6), many traders pay more attention to a bounce after the sweep.
• FVGs (part 3) and order blocks (part 4) left after a sweep are watched as places a pullback may stop.
• Short candles (1m, 5m) produce many EQH/EQL, and each one matters less. Lines formed on 4-hour or daily candles are watched by more people.

On our chart

How to turn it on

Chart tab › SMC button › Add-ons › tick EQH · EQL (Equal highs/lows). Structure (“Swing” or “Swing + internal”) must be on for it to draw — with structure off the ticks are greyed out and nothing is drawn, but your choice is kept. It starts off (the add-ons on at first are FVG and order blocks).

Facts about our implementation

• EQH/EQL use their own highs and lows, separate from swing structure (50 candles): a candle is a high when its high is above the highs of all 3 candles after it (lows the other way). Highs and lows alternate, and each is confirmed only after 3 candles.
• When a new high is confirmed it is compared with the previous high. If they differ by at most 0.1 × ATR(14) (taken at the new high’s candle), it is an EQH. Lows work the same way for EQL.
• ATR(14) averages each candle’s true range (high − low, including any gap from the previous close) over 14 candles, Wilder-style. If there are not enough candles for an ATR, nothing is marked.
• Up to the 3 most recent EQH and 3 most recent EQL are drawn.
• Each is a short dashed line between the two highs (lows). EQH is red with its label above, EQL green with its label below — the candle colours. If the line is shorter than its label, the label is hidden (the line stays).
• The chart does not judge whether a level was crossed (swept) — crossed levels are not removed; the 3 most recent stay.
• The candle still forming is left out, and only the candles the chart received (500 from Binance) are counted. So the same breakout can get a different structure name when the received candles start at a different time — the Oct 2 break above is CHoCH ↑ on this chart and BOS ↑ on the part 2 chart.

Next: the expensive and cheap halves of a range, premium and discount.