Advanced tier
What are breaker blocks and mitigation blocks?
A breaker block and a mitigation block are both failed order blocks: zones that a candle closed through. SMC traders call it a breaker when price first traded beyond the old extreme that stood before the block, taking the liquidity there, and a mitigation block when it stopped short. Either way, the old zone is watched from the other side.
How to spot it
Start with an order block: the last opposite-colour candle before a displacement that broke structure. The idea is that price may react there if it returns. Sometimes it does not react. Price trades back into the zone and a candle closes beyond its far side. At that point the order block has failed, and SMC gives the failed zone a second life with a new name.
Which name depends on what happened between the block forming and the block failing. Take a bullish block. Before it formed, the chart had an old extreme: the highest high that stood before the block candle. If the run away from the block traded above that old high, taking the buy-side liquidity resting there, and only then turned and closed below the block, the zone is read as a breaker. If the run stalled short of the old high, and then price closed below the block, the zone is read as a mitigation block. Mirror everything for a bearish block: the old extreme is the lowest low before the block.
In both cases the reading flips. A failed bullish zone, once read as support, is now watched as possible resistance when price climbs back to it. That return is the retest, and the zone to mark is the full high to low of the original candle.
These are the working rules ForexLens uses so that a chart can be graded exactly. Teachers differ: some define the breaker from the swing rather than the candle, some use candle bodies, and some treat the two names as the same thing. When you read other material, check which definition is in use before comparing notes.
The rule ForexLens uses
An order block fails when a candle after the structure break closes beyond its far side: the low of a bullish block, the high of a bearish one. A wick is not enough. It is a breaker if price traded beyond the old extreme before that close (the highest high before a bullish block, the lowest low before a bearish one), and a mitigation block if it stopped short. The zone is the full high to low of the block candle.
Step by step
- Find a valid order block: the last opposite-colour candle before a displacement leg that broke structure with a body close.
- Find the old extreme: the highest high on the chart before a bullish block, or the lowest low before a bearish one. Then follow the run away from the block and note whether it traded beyond that extreme.
- Wait for failure: a candle that closes beyond the far side of the block. A wick through the zone is not a failure.
- Classify. Old extreme taken, then failure: breaker. Old extreme not taken, then failure: mitigation block. No failure at all: neither name applies, and it is still an ordinary order block.
- Mark the retest zone as the full high to low of the block candle, now read from the opposite side.
Worked example
The chart below is a seeded, simulated scenario from the Breaker or Mitigation game, shown complete. Before opening the Lens, find the order block: the last opposite-colour candle before the displacement that closed through structure. Then find the old extreme, the highest high before a bullish block or the lowest low before a bearish one.
Now ask the two questions in order. Did any later candle close beyond the far side of the block, not just wick through it? If so, did the run away from the block trade beyond the old extreme before that close? The walk-through under the chart answers both with the prices and the candle numbers.
This chart ends as a breaker. Change one fact and the name changes. Had the run stalled short of the old extreme before the same failing close, the zone would be a mitigation block. Had price only wicked into the block, or through it, and closed back inside, nothing would have failed and neither name would apply. The game deals all three endings.
USD/JPY, 15-minute candles, simulated
Reading the chart, step by step
- The order block is candle 23 (150.017 to 150.171): the last down candle before the displacement on candle 24, which closed above structure. Its far side is its low, 150.017.
- The old extreme is the highest high before the block: 150.746, on candle 7.
- After the block, price runs to 150.862 on candle 30, 11.6 pips above that old high. The old extreme was taken.
- Candle 40 then closes at 149.968, 4.9 pips below the far side at 150.017. A close, not a wick: the block has failed.
- Old extreme taken first, then a close beyond the far side: by the rule this is a breaker.
- The zone is the whole block candle, 150.017 to 150.171, now read from the other side. On this chart candle 47 trades back into it and price turns down again. The chart was built to show that. A real one need not.
These numbers come from the generated chart above. Change the seed and the prices change; the rule does not.
Takeaway: The block candle is the same in all three endings; only the path between forming and failing decides the name.
Common mistakes
- Calling a wick a failure. The block fails on a body close beyond its far side. A wick that pokes through and closes back inside leaves the order block intact.
- Naming it before it fails. There is no breaker and no mitigation block until the close happens. Labelling a zone early is a forecast, not a reading.
- Skipping the history. The difference between the two names is whether price took the old extreme before the block failed. If you do not check the old high or low, you are guessing.
- Marking the wrong zone. The retest zone is the original block candle, high to low. It is not the candle that closed through it and not the whole leg.
- Treating the retest as certain. Price often never returns, and when it does it can pass straight through. The zone is a place to watch, with a plan for being wrong.
Does it work? An honest note
Honestly: nobody has shown that it does in the way it is usually sold. The plain version of the idea is old and reasonable. A level that held as support and then broke is often watched as resistance afterwards, because traders who bought there are now losing and may sell if price returns. That behaviour is described in trading books that predate smart money vocabulary by decades.
What the SMC version adds is a precise candle and a story about why the sweep matters. The precision is useful, because it makes a reading checkable. The story is an inference. A retail chart cannot show who sold or why, and we know of no independent, published test showing that breakers hold better than mitigation blocks, or that either gives a retail trader a durable edge.
So treat the labels as a way to describe what price did, clearly enough that two people can agree on it. That is what the game grades. Whether a reading is worth trading is a separate question, covered on does SMC work. Most retail traders lose money, with or without this vocabulary.
Questions people ask
What is the difference between a breaker block and a mitigation block?
Both are order blocks that failed, meaning a candle closed beyond the far side of the zone. Under the ForexLens working rule the difference is what price did before that close. If it traded beyond the old extreme, the highest high before a bullish block or the lowest low before a bearish one, the failed zone is a breaker. If it stopped short of that extreme, the failed zone is a mitigation block. Other teachers draw the line differently, so always check the definition in use.
Is a breaker block the same as an order block?
No. An order block is a zone that is expected to hold if price returns. A breaker is what SMC traders call that zone after it has failed to hold and price has closed through it. The same candle can be an order block for a while and a breaker later. The reading flips: a failed bullish zone is then watched as possible resistance rather than support.
Where do I mark the retest zone?
In ForexLens the retest zone is the full high to low of the original order block candle, wicks included. That matches how the order block zone itself is defined, so the box does not change when the name does. Some traders use only the candle body or the 50% level of the candle. Those are refinements, not part of the rule the game grades.
Is there a game for breaker and mitigation blocks?
Yes, in the Advanced tier: Breaker or Mitigation shows an order block that price has come back to test. You call it a breaker, a mitigation block or neither, then mark the zone of a failed one, high to low. The Core tier game on order blocks comes first.
Practise it
Reading about a rule is not the same as applying it. These games generate a fresh chart each round, ask you to find it first, and grade you against the same rule.
Breaker or Mitigation
An order block is tested. Did it fail, and how? Call it a breaker, a mitigation block or neither, then mark the retest zone.