Institutional Trading Concepts

Mitigation Blocks in Trading

1. What is a Mitigation Block?

A mitigation block is a key concept in smart money trading. It refers to price zones where the market often pauses or reverses due to institutional activity. These blocks act as areas where unfilled orders are mitigated, allowing large players to complete their positions.

Types of Mitigation Blocks:

• Bearish Mitigation Block: This appears during a downtrend and indicates areas where the price may retrace before continuing downward.
• Bullish Mitigation Block: This appears during an uptrend and signals areas where the price may pull back before moving higher.

2. How to Identify Mitigation Blocks

To identify mitigation blocks, you need to consider the market context, the reasons behind price movement, and the levels where the price reacts. Here's how they are formed:

Bearish Mitigation Block

• Market Context: A bearish mitigation block forms during a downtrend when the price retraces temporarily to fill pending institutional sell orders before continuing lower.
• Formation Timeline:
  • On October 8, 2024, Nike (NKE) stock reached a Swing Low (SL) at $79.93, indicating the start of significant selling pressure.
  • On October 17, 2024, the stock attempted a recovery and formed a Swing High (SH) at $84.76. However, the price failed to break higher, confirming a bearish sentiment and leaving an imbalance between these levels.
• Mitigation Event: After the initial drop, the price retraced into the Bearish Mitigation Block, defined by the range of $79.93 to $84.76, on December 6, 2024. This retracement allowed the execution of pending sell orders.
• Key Levels to Watch: The mitigation block, highlighted as the purple zone on the chart, acted as resistance. Once the price entered this zone, it faced rejection as sell orders were filled.
• Movement: Following the rejection in the bearish mitigation block, the price resumed its downtrend, eventually falling below $72 as of Jan 12, 2025.

Bullish Mitigation Block

• Market Context: A bullish mitigation block forms during an uptrend when the price retraces temporarily to fill institutional buy orders. This often follows a sharp upward move, creating an imbalance or Fair Value Gap (FVG).
• Formation Timeline:
  • On November 6, 2024, Tesla (TSLA) stock formed a Swing Low (SL), initiating a strong upward move.
  • The price reached a Swing High (SH) on November 11, 2024, but then retraced, creating an equal high and a consolidation zone within the Bullish Mitigation Block.
  • During this retracement, the price respected the support level defined by the Swing Low (SL) and failed to break the low, indicating strong institutional buying activity.
• Mitigation Event: After consolidating, the price retraced into the Bullish Mitigation Block, defined by the range of $308 to $360. This retracement allowed unfilled buy orders to be executed before the price resumed its uptrend.
• Key Levels to Watch: The highlighted purple zone represents the mitigation block. This area aligns with the previously established support level, where traders looked for price confirmation and a bullish reaction.
• Movement: Once buy orders were executed within the block, the price resumed its upward momentum, ultimately breaking above the previous highs and reaching new levels near $480.

3. How Can We Trade Mitigation Blocks?

Here’s a simple way to trade using mitigation blocks:

• Bearish Mitigation Block:
  • Wait for the price to retrace into the bearish mitigation block.
  • Look for bearish confirmation (e.g., candlestick patterns like bearish engulfing or lower highs).
  • Enter a short trade with a stop loss above the block and a target at the next support or low.
• Bullish Mitigation Block:
  • Wait for the price to retrace into the bullish mitigation block.
  • Look for bullish confirmation (e.g., candlestick patterns like bullish engulfing or higher lows).
  • Enter a long trade with a stop loss below the block and a target at the next resistance or high.