Order blocks don't always hold. When price closes straight through one, the block has failed, but the level doesn't lose its importance. It often flips role, like the broken support becoming resistance you saw in Module 2. SMC has two names for these flipped blocks: breakers and mitigation blocks.
Breaker block
A bullish breaker forms like this: in a decline, price makes a low, rallies to a lower high (where a bearish order block forms), then drops to a new low that sweeps the previous one. Instead of continuing down, price rallies hard and closes above the bearish order block. That failed bearish block is now a bullish breaker: when price returns to it, traders expect it to act as support.
A bearish breaker is the mirror: a sweep of a high, then a break down through a failed bullish order block.
Mitigation block
A mitigation block forms the same way, but without the sweep. Price makes a higher low (instead of a lower low), then breaks above the bearish order block. Because no liquidity was taken first, many traders consider mitigation blocks slightly weaker than breakers.
| Breaker block | Mitigation block | |
|---|---|---|
| Starts as | An order block that fails | An order block that fails |
| Liquidity sweep before the break? | Yes: a new low (or high) | No: a higher low (or lower high) |
| After the break | Old block acts as support (or resistance) | Old block acts as support (or resistance) |
| Usual strength | Stronger: liquidity was taken | A little weaker |
| Invalid when | Price closes back through the block | Price closes back through the block |
Key takeaways
- When an order block fails, price often treats it as the opposite kind of zone on the retest.
- A breaker block forms after a liquidity sweep: a new low (or high), then a break through the failed block.
- A mitigation block forms the same way without the sweep: a higher low (or lower high).
- Breakers are usually considered the stronger of the two because liquidity was taken first.