A retest framework is a processMost traders know support and resistance, but few have a rule set for when those levels become tradable. In crypto, levels are breached constantly. What matters is not the breach. What matters is what the market accomplishes by breaching it and how it behaves once it returns.
The framework starts by defining a clear swing high and swing low. These are the most recent meaningful extremes where price demonstrably changed direction, not intraday noise. The midpoint between them becomes equilibrium, your objective reference for premium versus discount within that swing. This midpoint is not predictive. It simply organizes the playing field.
Next comes liquidity. Equal highs, equal lows, and inefficient consolidation clusters are not decorations on the chart. They are incentives. Stops pool there. Traders position emotionally there. The market goes there to transact. When price moves into that pocket and leaves a wick that is quickly reclaimed, you have the sweep. This is the first proof that the breakout traders were the liquidity, not the beneficiaries.
A sweep alone is not structure. So the next requirement is transition. In an uptrend, buyers defend higher lows. When the last defended low is violated after a sweep, you get the break of micro-structure. In a downtrend, sellers defend lower highs. When the last supplied high is reclaimed after liquidity is taken below, you have transition in reverse. This is where narrative changes from continuation to rotation.
Then comes displacement. This is the market proving participation through momentum. A structural transition followed by compressed candle ranges or low-volume drift lacks authority. But a transition followed by clean directional movement shows that the opposing side stepped in with urgency. This is not retail FOMO. This is participation.
The retest becomes the execution filter. Price returns to the broken zone or swept liquidity level. It interacts there without hesitation, without sweeping back through the same side, and without expanding candle ranges against the narrative you built. This is where professionals position. Not because it is perfect timing, but because it is permissioned timing. The stop goes beyond the narrative fracture point, not a generic percent. The target goes toward the next liquidity incentive in line, not a vague R:R fantasy.
This sequencing matters even more inside funded evaluations. Prop traders fail most often when they cluster mistakes. A retest framework reduces mistake clustering because it forces the trade to form a story before it forms exposure. It narrows invalidation distance, improves average R:R, and protects daily drawdown math naturally. It also gives you neutrality after streaks. The framework does not amplify confidence.
It anchors confidence to conditions.
The retest framework does not promise that a trade works. It promises that a trade has a reason to work. And having reasons before exposure is the edge that compounds careers in crypto, especially when liquidity and volatility drain fast.
