The Judas Swing
Named after the biblical betrayal, the Judas Swing is the initial fake move at session open designed to trap early-entry retail traders. Here's how it works at London open: during Asia, price creates a range. At 8:00 GMT, price aggressively breaks one side of the Asian range (say, breaks above the Asian high). Breakout traders enter long. Then within 15-60 minutes, price reverses sharply, sweeps the Asian low, and trends in the true direction for the rest of the day.
Trading the Judas Swing
Step 1: Mark the Asian session high and low before London. Step 2: At London open, watch which direction price initially moves. Step 3: Do NOT enter with the initial move โ this is the Judas Swing. Step 4: Wait for the reversal. When price sweeps the opposite side of the Asian range and creates a CHoCH on the 5M/15M, enter in the new direction. Step 5: Target the other side of the Asian range and beyond.
The Turtle Soup Pattern
Developed by Larry Connors, Turtle Soup fades breakouts of previous day highs and lows. In SMC terms: when price breaks above yesterday's high by a small amount (1-5 pips) then immediately reverses, it's a liquidity sweep of buy-side liquidity. The "breakout" triggered buy stops above the high, and institutions used those orders to fill their shorts. Enter short when price drops back below the previous high.
The Spring (Wyckoff)
The Spring is a false breakdown below a trading range that occurs during accumulation. Price breaks below the range support, triggering sell stops and panic selling. Institutions absorb all the selling and rapidly reverse price back above the range. The Spring is the highest-probability long entry in the Wyckoff schematic because it represents the completion of institutional accumulation.
Common Thread: All Traps Are Liquidity Events
Whether it's a Judas Swing, Turtle Soup, or Spring, the underlying mechanism is identical: institutions need liquidity, they engineer a move to trigger stops, they use those triggered orders to fill their own positions, then they move price in their intended direction. Quantum Algo detects these liquidity sweeps in real time, helping you avoid the trap and trade the reversal.