Trading Strategies
Market Structure
The skeleton of price action: the sequence of swing highs and lows that defines trend, and the breaks of that sequence that signal change.
In plain English
Market structure reads trend from swings: higher highs and higher lows mean up, lower highs and lower lows mean down, and a break of the most recent significant swing (a break of structure) is the earliest objective evidence the regime is changing.
Structure gives every other tool its context. A breakout matters more with structure behind it; a sweep matters more against structure. Prop traders lean on it for bias selection each session: trade with the structure, stand aside when it is unclear.
- NQ prints higher lows all morning.
- When it breaks below the last higher low at 17960, a structure trader stops looking for longs and waits for a lower-high short.