Prior Week High / Low — Break & Retest

Weekly liquidity raid: price breaks the prior week's high or low, then returns to retest that level as new support/resistance. Highest-quality break-retest pattern in the stack.

The setup

The prior week’s high (PWH) and prior week’s low (PWL) sit on every institutional desk’s chart. When price breaks one of those levels and then returns to retest it from the other side, that retest tends to hold and the move continues.

This is the cleanest break-retest pattern we track — weekly levels are stable enough that the polarity flip (resistance becomes support, or vice versa) carries real follow-through.

Line ships on our chart HUD as PWH RETEST / PWL RETEST.

Entry rules

• Break: intraday close ≥ PWH (bull) or ≤ PWL (bear)
• Hold filter: at least 2 consecutive 5-min closes beyond the level (rejects fakeouts)
• Retest: price returns to within 0.25 × ATR14 of the level
• Entry: market on touch of the level after the retest
• Stop: 0.5 × ATR14 past the level (back inside the prior range)
• Target: measured move = breakout-extreme + width of the prior week’s range, or fixed 2R

Stats by retest speed

Faster retests hold better — once a week passes, the level loses urgency.

Why Tier 1

Highest-quality break-retest in the stack. The combination of a major reference level (weekly) plus a polarity flip (break + return) generates a clean stop and a clear target. Pair it with an iFVG at the retest zone for an A+ setup.

History

• 2026-04-28 — Page created. Pattern is stable across MNQ/MES/MYM/MCL/MGC; equity indices show slight bias toward bull breaks holding better than bear.