Sweep vs. breakout: the same candle, two different eventsBitcoin / TetherUS PERPETUAL CONTRACTBINANCE:BTCUSDT.PArdenAlgoA wick trades through a level and then the body closes back on the original side. Another time the body closes through. Charts make these look like cousins; mechanically they are opposites, and the whole ICT/SMC sequence depends on telling them apart the same way every time. The rule we use Sweep: the wick takes a tracked liquidity level (a swing high/low, an equal-high/low cluster, or the prior day's high/low) and the candle body closes back on the original side. Liquidity resting beyond the level was taken; the level did not hold as a path. Breakout ("run"): the body closes beyond the level. The level is gone; the market accepted the new side. Both are evaluated on the closed bar only. Inside the bar, the same candle can look like either — which is exactly why nothing is decided until the close. Why the distinction matters A sweep is the first step of a sequence, not a signal on its own: sweep → market-structure shift with displacement → a fair value gap left behind → the retest. A breakout ends a different story. Treat a breakout as a sweep and you are fading a move the market just accepted; treat a sweep as a breakout and you are chasing a wick. The two mistakes we see most Calling a sweep before the close. Wicks are not events; closes are. Tracking "levels" that were never liquidity. A swing counts only once it is confirmed by the bars after it; a random horizontal line is not a pool. What this does not say Nothing here claims that sweeps lead anywhere profitable. It is a definition, written so it can be applied identically to every bar, and a reason the definition needs a closed bar. Whether the full sequence has any edge after costs is a separate, testable question — and it should be tested, not assumed. Chart: every SWEEP label on this chart is a wick through a tracked level with the body closing back. Where a dashed level line simply ends with no label, the body closed through it — a breakout by this rule. Same indicator, same rule, two outcomes.