What Is the Equal Lows Strategy?

Three equal lows look like a floor. To us, they look like a pile of stop losses waiting to get hit.

It enters after a level gets taken, not in front of it. Two, three or four lows at roughly the same price stack stop orders just underneath. We wait for price to run those stops and climb back into the range, then enter, right where the crowd is forced to sell to you.

This is for the trader willing to wait for the sweep. If you'd rather buy the first bounce and hope... keep reading.

Why do the stops sit right at the equal lows?

Because most traders are taught to buy the double or triple bottom and put the stop slightly under the previous low. So a cluster of sell stops builds a little below the range. Larger orders need that liquidity to fill, right? Price often reaches for it with a sharp wick through the lows: the liquidity sweep.

The strategy has three parts:

1. The range. At least two, ideally three or more, distinct touches of the same low. In Wyckoff terms, the selling climax sets the low and a secondary test confirms it.
2. The sweep. A fast move below the equal lows that fires the resting stops. This is the spring.
3. The reclaim. Price closes back inside the range. No reclaim, NO trade. A close that holds below the range is a breakdown, not a spring.

Sweep depth scales with timeframe. In Chad's own charting, springs have run roughly 0.5 to 0.8% past the equal lows on the 1 hour and 4 hour charts, and roughly 0.1 to 0.2% on the 5 minute chart. Those are observations from his charts, not rules or targets. A bigger range on a higher timeframe produces a bigger sweep, which is timeframe imposition at work.

What does an equal lows strategy trade look like in numbers?

Illustrative numbers only. On the 1 hour chart, price has touched $60,000 three separate times. It wicks to $59,640, about 0.6% below the lows, and the next candle closes back above $60,000.

• Entry: $60,100, after the reclaim close.
• Stop: $59,600, just past the sweep low. Back below the wick, the spring failed and the thesis is wrong. That's the invalidation level, not a comfort buffer.
• Risk: 1% of a $10,000 account, so $100, over a $500 stop distance.
• Size: $100 divided by $500 gives 0.2 BTC, about $12,020 of exposure.
• Target: the next resistance zone at $61,700, which is $1,600 away. Reward to risk is 1:3.2, so it passes the 1:3 filter.
• Leverage last: at 5x the position needs about $2,404 of margin. Changing leverage changes the margin, not the $100 at stake.

Stopped out, the loss is about $100 plus fees and slippage. Can't reach 1:3 because resistance sits too close? No trade. Simple as that.

Where does the equal lows strategy plug into the Decision Protocol?

The equal lows strategy supplies the first two of the seven decisions. The thesis: resting stops below the range get taken and the range holds. The invalidation: the sweep low. Size comes from the distance between entry and stop, so the dollar risk stays fixed no matter how deep the wick runs.

Members often pair it with the just in case order, a resting limit inside the expected sweep zone so the fill happens even when nobody's watching the screen. Then there's spring versus test: catching the spring gives a better price, while waiting for the retest gives more confirmation for a smaller ratio. Pick one on purpose.

Chad puts the whole idea in one line: "I enter my trades where everybody else gets stopped out of their trades."

How do people get the equal lows strategy wrong?

They become the liquidity. A trader buys the third touch and places the stop a few dollars under the low, exactly where everyone else placed theirs. The sweep takes them out, the range reclaims, and price goes right where they expected... without them.

The second mistake is buying the sweep with no reclaim. A wick through the lows is only a spring if price closes back inside the range. If candles start closing and holding below it, the level has broken, and a small 5 minute range sitting above a larger 4 hour zone can keep falling to that bigger level. Hope isn't a reclaim.

What equal lows setup should you practice this week?

Find three sets of equal lows on a 1 hour chart, mark where the obvious stops would sit, then check what price did next.

Keep going: crypto trading strategies, how to read crypto charts, crypto position sizing and the risk to reward filter.