What Is Market Structure? How to Trade Breakouts, Retests, and Reversals Like a Pro

If you’ve ever been faked out by a breakout, or caught the top of a reversal only to watch price pump higher… you’re not alone.

Most traders focus on indicators like RSI, MACD, or Bollinger Bands — but fail to understand the most foundational element in price action:

Market Structure.

When you learn to read structure properly, you can:

  • Anticipate where price is going
  • Understand when trends are strong or weak
  • Time your entries on breakouts, retests, or trend reversals
  • Trade with precision — not hope

In this post, we’ll walk you through:

  • ✅ What market structure is
  • ✅ How to identify trends using structure
  • ✅ How to trade breakouts, retests, and reversals
  • ✅ The EPIQ Method of using structure with confluence
  • ✅ Tools we use to make it visual, simple, and consistent

🔍 What Is Market Structure in Trading?

Market structure is the natural flow of price across timeframes — the sequence of highs and lows that define trends.

There are 3 primary types of structure:


🔺 1. Bullish Structure

  • Higher highs (HH)
  • Higher lows (HL)
    ✅ Indicates an uptrend
    ✅ You buy pullbacks or breakout confirmations

🔻 2. Bearish Structure

  • Lower highs (LH)
  • Lower lows (LL)
    ✅ Indicates a downtrend
    ✅ You sell rallies or breakdown confirmations

🔄 3. Consolidation / Range

  • Sideways price action
  • Equal highs/lows (EQH/EQL)
    ✅ Market indecision
    ✅ Prepares for breakout or accumulation/distribution

🧠 Why Market Structure Matters

Unlike indicators, market structure is:

  • Price-based (not lagging)
  • Universal across all timeframes
  • Respected by smart money

It’s what institutions use to trap retail.
It’s how price builds energy before breaking out.
And it’s the foundation of every winning trading strategy.


🧩 The EPIQ Method: Trading Breakouts, Retests, and Reversals

We teach structure using simplicity + confluence. Here’s how:


📈 Breakouts

How to spot them:

  • Price breaks a key high (bullish) or low (bearish)
  • Structure shifts out of range or wedge
  • Volume confirms the breakout

EPIQ Tip:
Don’t chase the candle. Wait for:

  • Volume confirmation
  • Break + close outside the structure
  • Retest of the broken level (see next section)

🧪 Retests

The safest way to enter breakouts.

How to trade them:

  • Wait for the breakout
  • Look for price to pull back to the broken level (support becomes resistance or vice versa)
  • Enter on bullish/bearish reaction (e.g., engulfing candle, wick rejections)

EPIQ Tip:
Look for confluence with:

  • VWAP zones
  • Fibonacci retracement (38.2–61.8%)
  • Volume spikes on the bounce

🔁 Reversals

Structure tells you when a trend is dying.

Bullish reversal:

  • Price was making lower lows
  • Then makes a higher low + higher high = trend flip

Bearish reversal:

  • Price was making higher highs
  • Then makes a lower high + lower low = downtrend starts

EPIQ Tip:
Confirm reversal structure across multiple timeframes (1H, 4H, Daily)
Don’t front-run. Let price prove it changed.


🛠️ Example: BTC 1H Breakout → Retest → Trend Continuation

  1. BTC breaks above $65,000 resistance → HH formed
  2. Pulls back to $64,500 → retest of previous resistance
  3. VWAP sits at $64,550 = confluence
  4. Volume increases on bounce
  5. Long entry triggered → next leg hits $66,200

✅ Clear structure
✅ Clean risk/reward
✅ No indicators required


🧰 EPIQ Tools That Make Structure Easy

Inside EPIQ Trading Floor, we help members master structure with:

  • Live chart breakdowns every week
  • Market Structure Academy lessons with visual examples
  • VWAP + volume overlays for clean entries
  • Price action trade alerts based on structure shifts
  • ✅ Access to public member threads to learn from others’ setups

You don’t need 10 indicators or 3 screens.
You need structure, volume, and a plan.


🎯 Final Thoughts: Structure Is the Foundation of Consistency

If you’ve been jumping from strategy to strategy…
If you’ve been relying on indicators alone…
If you’ve been “guessing” your entries…

It’s time to get back to structure.

At EPIQ, we show you exactly how to trade breakouts, retests, and reversals like a pro — with confidence, confluence, and community.

🎯 Start your 3-day free trial now → epiqtradingfloor.com
Because once you understand structure, the market stops feeling random.


⚠️ Disclaimer:

This blog is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Always do your own research and use risk management when trading crypto assets.

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EQ.Trades

I'm Erik Quisenberry, a trader with over a decade of experience in trading. Since 2021, I’ve helped over 1,400 people become confident and profitable traders. I lead the EPIQ Trading Floor, a thriving community focused on education, signals, and tools for success in trading. Outside of trading, I’m passionate about business, marketing, fitness, and building creative ventures in media and gaming. I believe in the power of community and always pushing forward to grow personally and professionally.
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