LiquidityICT Trading EducationArticle 13 of 100
Buy Side Liquidity vs Sell Side Liquidity: The ICT Framework
Every chart has two sides of liquidity sitting above and below the current range. Price is always being drawn toward one of them. Knowing which side — and why — is what ties everything in this cluster together and connects directly back to your daily bias.
The Inner Circle Traders
Updated July 2026
9 min read
Cluster: Liquidity
Key Takeaways
- Buy side liquidity (BSL) rests above swing highs, where short sellers' stops and breakout buyers' pending orders cluster
- Sell side liquidity (SSL) rests below swing lows, where long traders' stops and breakout sellers' pending orders cluster
- Price is always being drawn toward one side or the other — this is the draw on liquidity
- Market makers frequently engineer moves toward BOTH sides across a full session, not just one
- Knowing which side is the current target is what connects liquidity analysis directly to your daily bias
What is Liquidity in Trading?
Liquidity in trading refers to the resting orders — stop losses, pending breakout entries, and other unfilled instructions — that sit at identifiable price levels, waiting to be triggered. These orders represent exactly what institutions need to fill large positions: opposing volume they can transact against without moving the market unfavourably against themselves.
In ICT trading specifically, liquidity is split into two directional categories depending on where it sits relative to current price: buy side liquidity and sell side liquidity. Understanding which side price is currently being drawn toward is the foundation of nearly every entry decision in the ICT framework.
What is Buy Side Liquidity?
Buy side liquidity (BSL) rests above recent swing highs. It is made up of two main components: stop-loss orders from traders who are short the market (their stops sit above the high, since a short position loses money as price rises), and pending buy-stop entries from breakout traders waiting for price to clear that level. When price reaches up and triggers these orders, the resulting buying pressure is what institutions use to fill positions before often reversing lower.
What is Sell Side Liquidity?
Sell side liquidity (SSL) rests below recent swing lows — the exact mirror of BSL. It consists of stop-loss orders from traders who are long the market (their stops sit below the low) and pending sell-stop entries from breakout traders waiting for price to break down through that level. When price dips down and triggers these orders, the resulting selling pressure provides liquidity for institutions before price often reverses higher.
BSL and SSL on the Same Chart
The clearest way to understand this framework is to see both sides marked on a single chart at once, since BSL and SSL always exist in relation to each other around the same dealing range.
Figure 1 — Buy side liquidity rests above the swing high, sell side liquidity rests below the swing low, with price moving within the range between them.
At any given moment, price sits somewhere between these two pools. The question that matters for trading is not whether BSL and SSL exist — they always do — but which one price is currently being engineered toward. That target is what ICT traders call the draw on liquidity.
How Market Makers Move Between Both Sides
It is a mistake to assume the market only ever targets one side of liquidity per session. Frequently, price is drawn first to one side, then reverses and is drawn to the other, before the genuine directional move for the session actually develops — a pattern closely related to the ICT Double Purge covered earlier in this cluster, but framed here specifically around which side of liquidity is being targeted at each stage.
Figure 2 — The draw on liquidity shifts from SSL to BSL across the session before the real directional move resolves, reflecting how market makers frequently address both sides before committing.
This is why checking only the nearest side of liquidity can be misleading. A trader who sees SSL just below current price and assumes that is the only relevant target may miss that BSL above is also about to be addressed before the real move develops in either direction.
Connecting BSL/SSL to Daily Bias and Draw on Liquidity
This is where the entire Liquidity cluster ties back into the rest of the ICT framework. Your daily bias tells you which side of the market you are favouring for the session — bullish bias means you are ultimately expecting BSL to be the final target; bearish bias means SSL is the final target. The specific BSL or SSL pool you identify is your draw on liquidity — the objective price level your trade thesis is measured against.
See our Daily Bias Mechanical Framework for the full step-by-step process of determining bias, and our guide to Liquidity Sweeps for how price actually interacts with BSL and SSL once it reaches them. Together, daily bias, BSL/SSL identification, and liquidity sweeps form the complete directional and target-setting layer of the ICT framework — everything covered across this entire cluster.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Institutions Actually Use BSL and SSL
Institutions cannot buy or sell large positions without affecting price. A hedge fund needing to buy 10,000 NQ contracts cannot simply place a market order — the slippage would be enormous. Instead, institutions move price to where retail orders are already resting, then fill against those resting orders at the established price level. This is why BSL and SSL are not just descriptive labels — they are the actual mechanism of institutional position building.
When an institution needs to build a large short position, it needs buyers on the other side. The BSL above swing highs is exactly those buyers — retail breakout traders and short stop losses that trigger as buy orders when price moves above the high. The institution drives price up to collect that BSL, fills its short against the triggered buy orders, then delivers price lower. The retail breakout traders who bought are now trapped in a losing long position as price reverses.
Understanding this mechanism changes how you read every high and low on the chart. A high is not just “resistance” — it is a collection point for institutional sell orders being filled against retail buy orders. A low is not just “support” — it is a collection point for institutional buy orders being filled against retail sell orders. The language of support and resistance describes the symptom; BSL and SSL describe the cause.
Why Equal Highs and Equal Lows Are the Highest Priority Targets
A single swing high has some buy stops above it — the short stop losses and breakout buy orders of traders who noticed that high. But equal highs — two, three, or four candles touching the same price level — have accumulated multiple waves of those same orders. Every time price tests the level and fails to break it, more traders place stops above it expecting it to hold. The result is a progressively denser BSL cluster above equal highs compared to a single-touch high.
This is why ICT traders treat equal highs and equal lows as the highest-priority liquidity targets on any chart. The price has tested the level multiple times (building the order cluster), failed to break it (convincing more traders the level is strong), and now sits just waiting to be swept. The moment institutions need to fill a large position, equal highs and equal lows are the most efficient liquidity pools available.
When marking BSL and SSL on your chart, always give priority to equal highs and equal lows over single-touch swing points. A prior week equal high with four separate candle touches is a far more significant target than a prior week high from a single candle. The denser the cluster, the more significant the level as a draw on liquidity.
Weekly BSL and SSL Mapping: A Practical Routine
Every Sunday evening or Monday morning, complete a BSL/SSL mapping routine on the weekly and daily charts. On the weekly chart: mark the prior week high (BSL above) and prior week low (SSL below). Note whether either level coincides with a prior month high/low (double-stacked BSL or SSL — higher priority). On the daily chart: mark the prior day high (BSL above) and prior day low (SSL below) for Monday’s session specifically.
This weekly mapping routine gives you the four most important liquidity references for the coming week before a single candle of the week has printed: prior week high (primary BSL), prior week low (primary SSL), prior day high (Monday BSL), prior day low (Monday SSL). The week’s first significant directional move — typically the Monday or Tuesday Judas Swing — will target one of these four levels. Knowing them in advance means you are never caught off-guard by a liquidity sweep that was plainly visible from Sunday evening’s analysis.
Watch: Buy Side Liquidity vs Sell Side Liquidity: The ICT Framework
Original ICT teaching on this concept from the Inner Circle Trader YouTube channel.
What is liquidity in trading?+
Liquidity in trading refers to resting orders — stop losses and pending breakout entries — sitting at identifiable price levels, waiting to be triggered. Institutions need this liquidity (opposing orders) to fill large positions. In ICT trading, liquidity is split into buy side liquidity (above swing highs) and sell side liquidity (below swing lows).
What is buy side liquidity?+
Buy side liquidity (BSL) is the pool of resting orders above a recent swing high, made up of short sellers' stop-loss orders and breakout buyers' pending entries. When price rises into this level and triggers those orders, the resulting buying activity provides liquidity that institutions can use to fill positions.
What is sell side liquidity?+
Sell side liquidity (SSL) is the pool of resting orders below a recent swing low, made up of long traders' stop-loss orders and breakout sellers' pending entries. When price falls into this level and triggers those orders, the resulting selling activity provides liquidity institutions can use before often reversing the market higher.
What is the impact of liquidity in trading?+
Liquidity directly shapes where price moves and why. Rather than moving randomly, price is frequently drawn toward identifiable pools of resting liquidity — BSL or SSL — because institutions need that liquidity to fill large positions. Understanding this reframes price action from "random fluctuation" to a more deliberate process of seeking out and clearing available liquidity before reversing.
How does draw on liquidity relate to BSL and SSL?+
The draw on liquidity is the specific BSL or SSL pool that price is currently being engineered toward. It gives a trade thesis a concrete, objective target — rather than just knowing direction (via daily bias), you know specifically which liquidity pool price is expected to reach. See our guide to Liquidity Sweeps for what happens once price reaches that target.
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