What does “stop hunt” mean?
A stop hunt describes price trading through a cluster of stop-loss orders, sometimes followed by a reversal. The phrase is common trading shorthand; a chart alone cannot establish intent or manipulation. Ordinary order flow, news or thin liquidity can produce the same pattern. See the glossary definition.
Why stops cluster at obvious levels
Round numbers, recent highs and recent lows are shared reference points. Traders using similar rules may put exits just beyond them: sell stops below a low to close longs, buy stops above a high to close shorts. This can concentrate orders in a narrow price band. A cluster is conditional trading interest, not a wall of resting liquidity.
What happens when stops trigger?
Stop-market orders become market orders when their trigger condition is met. They consume resting bids or asks, supplying executable flow to counterparties waiting for liquidity. A burst of selling below a low or buying above a high can push price into further stops. Slippage means the fill can be worse than the trigger price, particularly in a thin book.
If leverage is high, liquidation levels may be stacked behind the stops: a continued move can reach the exchange's margin thresholds and add forced closing orders. Stops and liquidations are separate events; not every stop triggers a cascade. Once the orders are absorbed, price may reverse, but sustained flow can carry it farther. A stop-limit instead activates a limit order, which may remain unfilled.
Stops, liquidations and resting limit orders
| Type | What activates it? | Where to look |
|---|---|---|
| Stop-loss | A trader's chosen trigger price; market or limit execution | Real Hyperliquid trigger orders |
| Liquidation | Insufficient maintenance margin; exchange closes exposure | Estimated liquidation levels |
| Resting limit order | An incoming order trades against its price on the book | Order book depth |
The Hyperliquid liquidation map separately shows exact liquidation prices for tracked positions. A book wall can be cancelled; a stop can be moved too.
How to read the stop-loss heatmap
Open the stop-loss heatmap and select BTC for its price ladder. Stop-losses grow left and take-profits right; the dashed line is the mark price, which triggers these Hyperliquid orders. Below it stops close longs; above it stops close shorts. Values are order size times trigger price, not collateral or realised losses.
The live box shows BTC totals, the number of wallets with BTC trigger orders, and the nearest stop cluster on each side. “Nearest” means the closest of the five biggest stop-loss levels on that side, each 0.25% of price wide, rather than the closest individual stop. Each figure gives the level's middle, its percentage distance from the mark and its USD stop value. No cluster reported on one side does not prove there are no stops there.
Compare a move with failed breakouts and order book depth, while keeping their different coverage in mind. A heatmap is a snapshot, not evidence that price will seek a level or reverse there.
Stop placement: general education
A tighter stop reduces the distance to its trigger but is more exposed to ordinary volatility. A wider stop increases the possible loss for the same position size. Trigger price, position size, leverage and available liquidity interact; moving a stop does not remove risk. Stop-market orders prioritise execution over price, while stop-limit orders constrain price at the risk of no fill. These are trade-offs to understand, not a recommended placement rule or investment advice.
Limits of the data
- Tracked wallets only: roughly 100 large wallets plus up to 100 recently active traders; this is not all BTC positioning.
- Trigger orders only: stop-losses and take-profits, not plain limit orders, undisclosed exits or every liquidation level.
- Hyperliquid only: this does not map stops across other exchanges.
- Wallets are refreshed in sequence, about every 100 minutes for a full pass; orders can change between reads. Orders not re-read for three hours are dropped.
- The box reads only a fresh cached summary from the parent tool. A cold or stale cache shows unavailable; open the live heatmap for the latest data. Nothing here guarantees a fill, a stop hunt or a reversal.
Checked against the exchanges' own documentation on 19 October 2026: Hyperliquid: order types · Hyperliquid: liquidations. Not financial advice.