7 Trading Confluences That Turn a Random Entry Into a High-Probability Setup

Video: Learn Every Trading Confluence In 18 Minutes

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Oct 18, 2026 · based on the channel TJR

Trading with confluences means waiting for several independent signals — liquidity, fair value gaps, inverse fair value gaps, equal highs or lows and break of structure — to point at the same price zone before you take an entry. Instead of reacting to a single candlestick pattern, you build a checklist and only trade when enough boxes are ticked. TJR's breakdown of every major confluence fits into 18 minutes, and the full framework behind it is laid out in the trading blueprint linked in the video description.

The logic is simple: one signal is a guess, three or four signals in the same place is a probability shift. This guide walks through the stack in the order it usually appears on a chart, explains what each confluence actually measures, and shows how to combine them without turning your chart into a mess of lines.

What a confluence actually is in trading

A confluence is any additional piece of evidence that raises the odds of a setup working, and its value depends entirely on whether it is independent from the signals you already use. Two moving averages crossing is one piece of information drawn twice; a liquidity sweep, an unmitigated fair value gap and a break of structure are three different market events that happen to line up. That distinction is what separates a real checklist from indicator clutter.

A practical way to think about it:

1. Direction filter — where is structure breaking? Longs only make sense if the last break of structure was bullish.
2. Location filter — is price sitting at a zone the market has already shown interest in, such as an unmitigated imbalance or a pool of stops?
3. Trigger — what specific candle or displacement confirms that the zone is being respected right now?

If any of the three is missing, you do not have a trade, you have a hypothesis. Most losing trades come from skipping the location filter because the trigger candle looked convincing on its own.

Liquidity: the pools price is drawn to

Liquidity in trading refers to clusters of resting orders — mostly stop losses — that sit above equal highs, below equal lows, or around obvious swing points, and price frequently moves toward them before reversing. Traders who mark these pools in advance stop being surprised by wicks that seem to come from nowhere.

How to map it in practice:

• Mark equal highs and equal lows where two or three candles top or bottom at nearly the same price; retail stops pile up just beyond them.
• Note session highs and lows from Asia, London and New York, because the following session often reaches for them.
• Watch trendline liquidity — a series of higher lows that everyone is drawing — as a magnet once price accelerates toward it.

A sweep of that liquidity is not automatically a reversal signal, but it tells you where the fuel is. When a sweep happens inside a higher-timeframe zone, you now have two confluences instead of one.

Fair value gaps and how to read the imbalance

A fair value gap is a three-candle formation where the wick of the first candle and the wick of the third candle do not overlap, leaving a price range that traded in one direction only. That gap represents an imbalance: aggressive buyers or sellers moved price so fast that the other side had no chance to respond, and price often returns to rebalance it later.

Three practical rules keep FVG trading honest:

1. Use the wick-to-wick range, not the candle bodies, or you will mark gaps that do not exist.
2. Rank gaps by timeframe — a daily gap matters more than a one-minute gap, and a gap created by a strong displacement candle matters more than one formed in chop.
3. Treat the gap as a zone, not a line; entries at the proximal edge with a stop beyond the distal edge give a defined risk.

A gap that has already been traded through is mitigated and loses most of its value. Keep only unmitigated gaps on your chart.

Inverse fair value gaps as confirmation

An inverse fair value gap is a gap that price traded back through and then respected from the other side — a former demand imbalance that now acts as resistance, or the reverse. It is one of the strongest confirmation tools in the stack because it shows a failed attempt to rebalance and a shift in who is in control.

The sequence to look for is straightforward: price leaves a gap, returns into it, breaks through the far side with displacement, and then retests the broken gap from the outside. That retest is the entry area, and the invalidation is a close back inside the gap. An inverse FVG combined with a liquidity sweep of the prior swing is a two-confluence setup that appears on almost every timeframe.

Equal highs and equal lows as a setup, not just a level

Equal highs and equal lows are double tops and bottoms drawn precisely, and their real function is to advertise where stop losses are hiding. Traders see a clean double top and short the second touch; the market sweeps that level and continues higher, taking those stops as fuel.

Use them two ways:

• As a target when you are already in a trade in the opposite direction — the pool is a logical place to take profit.
• As a trigger zone when price sweeps the level and immediately closes back inside, especially if the sweep lands inside an unmitigated gap.

The mistake is treating the equal high itself as a short signal. Without a break of structure or a displacement candle rejecting the sweep, the level is just a line on a chart.

Break of structure as the direction filter

Break of structure is the event that tells you which side of the market is in control: price closes beyond a significant swing high in an uptrend or swing low in a downtrend. It is the cheapest and most reliable direction filter available, and it should be checked before any of the other confluences matter.

A working process looks like this:

1. Identify the most recent significant swing high and swing low on your trading timeframe.
2. Wait for a body close beyond that level, not a wick.
3. Mark the origin of the impulse leg that caused the break — that origin is where the next pullback is likely to be bought or sold.
4. Only then look for a fair value gap or liquidity sweep inside that pullback.

When structure breaks in one direction and a gap sits in the pullback, you have a directional bias and a location. That combination filters out most of the low-quality setups that appear during ranging conditions.

Combining the stack without over-filtering

Stacking confluences improves quality up to a point, then it destroys your sample size. If you demand liquidity, an FVG, an inverse FVG, an equal-high sweep and a break of structure all at once, you may get one trade a month and never learn whether your read is actually good.

A workable middle ground is a tiered checklist: direction from break of structure is mandatory, location from an unmitigated gap or liquidity pool is mandatory, and the trigger — inverse FVG, rejection candle, sweep-and-reclaim — can vary. Grade each trade A, B or C depending on how many boxes are ticked, and review the grades against your results in a journal. Over a few dozen trades the data will tell you which confluences actually add value for your strategy, which is exactly the point experienced traders keep making in the comments under the video.

Common questions traders ask about confluences

Many viewers note that an 18-minute overview turns into an hour of note-taking, which is normal — the concepts are simple to name and slow to recognise in live conditions. The recurring doubts are predictable: how many confluences is enough, whether these tools work on lower timeframes, and how much screen time it really takes before the patterns become obvious. The honest answers are unglamorous. Two or three independent signals in the same zone are enough to build a repeatable process, lower timeframes produce more noise and require stricter filters, and the learning curve is measured in months of deliberate practice rather than days. Nobody avoids losing money entirely at the start; the goal is to make the losses small, documented and instructive while the read improves.

Useful links

The video description bundles the tools TJR uses, alongside the broker and funded-account partners referenced in the breakdown:

• Trading blueprint — the full system for becoming a profitable trader
• Indicators used daily
• Funded account raffle entry
• Alpha Futures funded accounts — 10% off
• Lucid Trading — 40% off

The takeaway

Confluence trading is not about finding more signals; it is about refusing to trade until direction, location and trigger agree. Liquidity tells you where the stops are, fair value gaps and inverse gaps tell you where price is likely to react, equal highs and lows mark the fuel, and break of structure tells you which side to be on. Build a tiered checklist, grade your setups, and let a journal — not a feeling — decide which combinations deserve your risk. TJR's 18-minute walkthrough is a compact map of that entire stack, and the blueprint is where the full process continues.

Source: Learn Every Trading Confluence In 18 Minutes · Markdown version