YouTube2Text

Market Mechanics Ep 9: Fair Value Gaps / Imbalance — Transcript

by Brad Goh (The Trading Geek) · 5,771 words · 881 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

Full transcript

  1. 0:00Have you ever seen price explode in one
  2. 0:02direction and then suddenly coming back
  3. 0:05into the same area before continuing?
  4. 0:08Most traders think that that's just a
  5. 0:10random pullback, but a lot of the time
  6. 0:13the market is just coming back to fill
  7. 0:16an imbalance.
  8. 0:18And if you understand that, you start
  9. 0:19seeing the chart very differently.
  10. 0:22So today, I want to break down one of
  11. 0:24the most important concepts in price
  12. 0:26delivery and that is imbalance, or which
  13. 0:29is also known as inefficiency, which is
  14. 0:31also known as the fair value gap.
  15. 0:34Because when price move very aggressive
  16. 0:36in one direction, it's going to leave
  17. 0:38behind an inefficiency in price in the
  18. 0:42market. And understanding that can help
  19. 0:44you anticipate where price may retrace,
  20. 0:47react, or continue from. In the first
  21. 0:51lesson, we talked about how the market
  22. 0:53have to move from phases of imbalance to
  23. 0:56balance to imbalance to balance again,
  24. 0:58right? Because the market is actively
  25. 0:59seeking fair value. That's what this
  26. 1:03concept is about, right? Imbalance is
  27. 1:05basically an inefficient area in price
  28. 1:09where one side was so aggressive that
  29. 1:12the market moved too quickly and did not
  30. 1:14trade efficiently through that zone.
  31. 1:18So it's basically an area where price
  32. 1:20moved so fast, so far that it left
  33. 1:23behind unfinished business.
  34. 1:25Right? Just like in this case right
  35. 1:26here, we have a bullish candlestick
  36. 1:28right here. Next thing you know, huge
  37. 1:30bullish candlestick signaling there's a
  38. 1:32lot of buying pressure, a lot of buying
  39. 1:34momentum, and then the momentum starts
  40. 1:36slowing down. All right? When this
  41. 1:38happens, this pretty much tell us that
  42. 1:39there's an imbalance right here, and
  43. 1:42this is the gap that smart money has
  44. 1:44left behind because they've pumped price
  45. 1:46up so fast, right? That it just didn't
  46. 1:49have any pause whatsoever.
  47. 1:51So a fair value gap, it's basically one
  48. 1:54of the most clearest visual forms of
  49. 1:57imbalance. It usually appears in like
  50. 2:00this three candlestick sequence just
  51. 2:02like this. Where the first candlestick
  52. 2:05leave one side of the range, the second
  53. 2:07candle expand aggressively either to the
  54. 2:10upside or to the downside, and then the
  55. 2:12third candle leave a gap between the
  56. 2:15wick of candlestick number one and the
  57. 2:18wick of candlestick number three forming
  58. 2:20your fair value gap.
  59. 2:23Okay, so once again, let me just slow it
  60. 2:25down a little bit. Basically, when you
  61. 2:28see like a big bullish or bearish
  62. 2:29candlestick just like this, what you
  63. 2:31want to do is to find the first
  64. 2:33candlestick that was before that big
  65. 2:36juicy candlestick, and the candlestick
  66. 2:39that came after that big juicy
  67. 2:41candlestick, and you find the low of the
  68. 2:44candlestick that comes after that and
  69. 2:46the high of the candlestick that comes
  70. 2:48before that, and then draw a box just
  71. 2:50like this, and this is where you got
  72. 2:52your fair value gap. And this gap shows
  73. 2:55you that price has moved very quickly
  74. 2:57through that area itself.
  75. 2:59So a bullish fair value gap, just like
  76. 3:02this, is a strong move to the upside
  77. 3:05which leave inefficiency below.
  78. 3:07A bearish fair value gap is a strong
  79. 3:09move to the downside that leave
  80. 3:11inefficiency above.
  81. 3:14Okay, so once again, you must understand
  82. 3:16the logic behind the fair value gap. The
  83. 3:18reason why it form in the first place is
  84. 3:20because there was such an aggressive
  85. 3:23amount of buying
  86. 3:26or selling pressure.
  87. 3:29And as a result, that caused price to
  88. 3:31expand very, very quickly. So this
  89. 3:34pretty much tell us that at this point
  90. 3:35of time, there's so many sellers in the
  91. 3:37market that there was so little buyers
  92. 3:39in the market which caused price to just
  93. 3:41move very aggressively to the downside.
  94. 3:43Therefore, the market is counted as
  95. 3:45inefficient at this point of time.
  96. 3:49Okay, so when the market move too
  97. 3:51aggressive just like this, it does not
  98. 3:54always price everything fairly on the
  99. 3:55way up or down. So as a result, it's
  100. 3:58just going to leave behind a gap which
  101. 4:00is known as our imbalance or
  102. 4:02inefficiency, also known as a fair value
  103. 4:04gap. Right? So there's a lot of
  104. 4:05different names for it.
  105. 4:07Now,
  106. 4:08after this gap is formed, we are
  107. 4:11expecting the market to actually pull
  108. 4:13back to this gap. Now, why? Because
  109. 4:15remember when we talked about how the
  110. 4:17market move from phases of imbalance to
  111. 4:20balance to imbalance to balance because
  112. 4:23it's actively seeking fair value. So
  113. 4:25after a huge imbalance to the downside,
  114. 4:28we're expecting price to pull back to
  115. 4:30fair value, right? Going to the next
  116. 4:32phase, which is the balance phase before
  117. 4:34the next phase of imbalance again, and
  118. 4:37then balance and then imbalance and
  119. 4:38balance and balance and
  120. 4:40Because the market is often seeking
  121. 4:43efficiency, seeking fair value. Right?
  122. 4:46So this revisit in price can act as like
  123. 4:49a retracement where price is potentially
  124. 4:52mitigating the fair value gap and then
  125. 4:53continuing to the downside.
  126. 4:56So yeah, that's the fair value gap. It's
  127. 4:58not just a gap, it is a clue that the
  128. 5:00market may want to rebalance before
  129. 5:04moving on.
  130. 5:07Right? So
  131. 5:09now
  132. 5:11just follow these rules right here, and
  133. 5:13you will be able to easily identify a
  134. 5:15fair value gap. Basically, you just want
  135. 5:17to see like a big juicy candlestick just
  136. 5:20like this, either a bullish or a bearish
  137. 5:21candlestick, which signal that is strong
  138. 5:23displacement.
  139. 5:25And then you want to look for the
  140. 5:26candlestick that comes before it and
  141. 5:28after it.
  142. 5:29If there is a gap that was formed at the
  143. 5:32high of the previous candle and the low
  144. 5:35of the following candle, and there's a
  145. 5:37gap just like this, then there is
  146. 5:38imbalance. However, if let's say
  147. 5:42even though we see a big candlestick
  148. 5:43just like this in the previous
  149. 5:45candlestick, the wick was like somewhere
  150. 5:47right around here. Right? And then the
  151. 5:50next candlestick, the wick was somewhere
  152. 5:51around here. So in this case, once
  153. 5:53again, following the exact same
  154. 5:54principles, we identify a huge
  155. 5:57candlestick just like this, strong
  156. 5:59displacement. So somewhere over here,
  157. 6:01there might be an fair fair value gap or
  158. 6:03there might be an imbalance. Now, let's
  159. 6:05take a look at the candlestick that
  160. 6:06comes before and after it. Well, the
  161. 6:08candlestick that came before it, the
  162. 6:09high was right here. Well, the
  163. 6:12candlestick that came after it, the low
  164. 6:14was right here, right? So if you look at
  165. 6:16this, there is no fair value gap
  166. 6:18whatsoever. So even though there was a
  167. 6:20lot of buying pressure and a lot of
  168. 6:22buying momentum here, there is actually
  169. 6:24no imbalance. Right? This just show
  170. 6:26that, you know, smart money did actually
  171. 6:28came up there, pulled back, filled up
  172. 6:30the remaining buy orders before
  173. 6:31continuing even further, right? So there
  174. 6:33is no imbalance, there is no
  175. 6:35inefficiency whatsoever.
  176. 6:39So ideally, we want to combine whatever
  177. 6:43we have learned so far with this concept
  178. 6:45itself, which means that we want to see
  179. 6:48a bullish fair value gap at a discount
  180. 6:52range. And ideally, we want to trade it
  181. 6:54if the higher time frame trend
  182. 6:56direction, the swing structure, the
  183. 6:59internal structure is actually bullish.
  184. 7:01Then we want to look for longs at all of
  185. 7:03these fair value gap when price comes
  186. 7:04down to mitigate it.
  187. 7:07Same thing as the bearish fair value
  188. 7:08gap, but like in an opposite manner.
  189. 7:11So now, let's try to go under the charts
  190. 7:14and try to apply this concept itself,
  191. 7:16right? Before I give you more more tips
  192. 7:18on fair value gap.
  193. 7:19So just using your naked eyes alone, you
  194. 7:21should be able to easily spot a fair
  195. 7:23value gap. Like I said, first step, just
  196. 7:25look for strong displacement. Okay?
  197. 7:27Let's go from left to right, right left
  198. 7:29side here. What do we have? We see big
  199. 7:32candlesticks just like this.
  200. 7:33Immediately, my eyes is drawn towards
  201. 7:35that big
  202. 7:37bearish candlestick, and this is where
  203. 7:39you can find the candle that came before
  204. 7:41it and the candle that came after it.
  205. 7:43And then this is where I can draw a box
  206. 7:46marking up the imbalance, marking up the
  207. 7:48gap just like this.
  208. 7:51And sure enough, later on price did went
  209. 7:53up there, mitigate the fair value gap,
  210. 7:55and then come down. Okay? And then
  211. 7:57another very obvious one that I've seen
  212. 7:59is probably this one right here. Very
  213. 8:01obvious strong displacement. The low of
  214. 8:03previous candlestick and the high of the
  215. 8:05next candlestick, drag all the way up
  216. 8:06here, and once again, you can see price
  217. 8:08came all the way down here. Right? And
  218. 8:11then went up there, mitigate it before
  219. 8:12continuing down even further.
  220. 8:15So this is why you guys shouldn't be
  221. 8:18rushing into trades when price have
  222. 8:20already made its move, right? So in this
  223. 8:21case, price has already came all the way
  224. 8:22down here. You don't want to be entering
  225. 8:24for a sell right here. Because if you're
  226. 8:26entering for a sell right here, you are
  227. 8:28going to be at a huge disadvantage
  228. 8:29because you have to place your stop loss
  229. 8:31above this high, and your entry is just
  230. 8:34not precise anymore. So you're much more
  231. 8:36better off being patient, you know,
  232. 8:38because you understand the concept of
  233. 8:40imbalance and balance, just waiting for
  234. 8:42the market to pull back to
  235. 8:44fair value gap just like this, and then
  236. 8:46when it does, then you look for shorts,
  237. 8:47and then just continue shorting it down
  238. 8:50from there.
  239. 8:52So let's try to identify a bullish fair
  240. 8:54value gap. Since that's the bearish fair
  241. 8:56value gap, okay, there's one right here,
  242. 8:58right? Huge imbalance to the upside.
  243. 9:00Okay, there's a gap from this high and
  244. 9:02this low of the next candlestick right
  245. 9:04here. And sure enough, price pulled back
  246. 9:06to this fair value gap, mitigated,
  247. 9:08consolidated a little bit, and then
  248. 9:09starts going up.
  249. 9:12Now,
  250. 9:13let me just give you one final example
  251. 9:15before I can show you some tips and
  252. 9:16tricks. Maybe I can do it in the live
  253. 9:17market condition. Right? So you can see
  254. 9:19this is very obvious big bullish
  255. 9:22candlestick, strong displacement. And
  256. 9:24then this is the high of the previous
  257. 9:26candlestick and this is the low of the
  258. 9:28previous candlestick, and you can see we
  259. 9:29got a little fair value gap right here.
  260. 9:31But in this case, the reason why the
  261. 9:34fair value gap failed is because if you
  262. 9:36look at the higher time frame structure,
  263. 9:37it is still bearish. So like I said,
  264. 9:40it's all about really just using as many
  265. 9:42weapons in the arsenal to just develop a
  266. 9:44proper trade bias, taking into
  267. 9:46consideration everything before you
  268. 9:48actually look for longs or look for
  269. 9:50shorts.
  270. 9:52So
  271. 9:53another thing that you guys must
  272. 9:55understand is that
  273. 9:58you want to make sure that you don't
  274. 9:59just mark up fair value gap if there is
  275. 10:02no gap whatsoever. What I mean by that
  276. 10:04is that a lot of people that they see
  277. 10:06like big candlesticks just like this.
  278. 10:08You can see big candlesticks, big
  279. 10:09candlesticks. Then they immediately come
  280. 10:10here and they try to like mark out a
  281. 10:11fair value gap as like this range right
  282. 10:13here or something.
  283. 10:14But that's not true, right? Because
  284. 10:16there is no gap whatsoever. If you zoom
  285. 10:18into this price point over here.
  286. 10:22Okay? Yes, strong displacement. But if
  287. 10:24you look at the high of the previous
  288. 10:25candlestick and look at the low of the
  289. 10:26next candlestick, which is right here,
  290. 10:28there is no gap whatsoever. And since
  291. 10:31there's no gap, this is not counted as a
  292. 10:32fair value gap, which also means that
  293. 10:34there is no imbalance right here.
  294. 10:38Okay, compared to if you look at the
  295. 10:39left-hand side over here, where did
  296. 10:41price actually retrace to?
  297. 10:43Price potentially retrace back to this
  298. 10:45fair value gap that we have right here.
  299. 10:47Okay, retrace back to this bearish fair
  300. 10:49value gap and then continuing
  301. 10:51with the higher time frame downtrend.
  302. 10:55So, remember, you don't just want to
  303. 10:57look at fair value gaps alone. You want
  304. 10:59to think about what is the market doing
  305. 11:01right now. Who is in control of price?
  306. 11:02Okay, so right now clearly today price
  307. 11:04is bearish right now. Sellers are in
  308. 11:05control of price. Cool. That tell me
  309. 11:07that I need to look for
  310. 11:09bearish fair value gap. Okay? And then
  311. 11:11ideally, I want to wait for price to
  312. 11:13pull back to a imbalance to the
  313. 11:15downside.
  314. 11:17And then once that happens, then I can
  315. 11:18potentially look for shorts. Okay, or
  316. 11:20what you can do is also to combine your
  317. 11:22premium and discount with your fair
  318. 11:24value gap concepts. So, example in this
  319. 11:27case right here, price broke structure,
  320. 11:29came down. This is your swing high and
  321. 11:32this is your swing low. And then maybe I
  322. 11:34can just map that premium and discount
  323. 11:36up there. And this is where you might
  324. 11:38have identified one fair value gap right
  325. 11:41here, another fair value gap right here.
  326. 11:43And you can see both of these are fair
  327. 11:45value gaps. But why is it a fact that
  328. 11:48this one got disrespected where price
  329. 11:50just blast right through while this one
  330. 11:53actually got respected? It's because
  331. 11:55this one is more high up within the
  332. 11:57premium range. And there's also a huge a
  333. 12:00more bigger amount of imbalance right
  334. 12:03here where the market has to fill before
  335. 12:05it continue going down even further.
  336. 12:09So, yeah. Always make sure that you
  337. 12:10trade fair value gaps with context. Once
  338. 12:13again, none of these market mechanics
  339. 12:15concepts they can work just by itself
  340. 12:17alone. You cannot just say, "Okay,
  341. 12:19bearish fair value gap, I'm just going
  342. 12:20to enter for a sell. Bullish fair value
  343. 12:22gap, I'm just going to enter for a buy."
  344. 12:23If you trade that way, it's very, very
  345. 12:26dangerous, right? You want to use
  346. 12:28multiple confluences itself.
  347. 12:31Uh another thing you must understand is
  348. 12:33that sometimes
  349. 12:35price will tap into the edge of the fair
  350. 12:38value gap and then react from it and
  351. 12:40then go.
  352. 12:41But sometimes it might go deeper into
  353. 12:43it. Okay, let me just give you a few
  354. 12:44examples. In this case,
  355. 12:47price came down, tap into the fair value
  356. 12:49gap and then go.
  357. 12:51All right? And then in this other
  358. 12:53scenario, it came all the way up to the
  359. 12:55midpoint, which is the 50% of the fair
  360. 12:57value gap and then go.
  361. 12:59Uh another example is this one, right?
  362. 13:01Maybe price came all the way down here,
  363. 13:03came all the way up to the extreme,
  364. 13:06right? Extreme of the fair value gap and
  365. 13:08then go.
  366. 13:10Uh another example like maybe
  367. 13:13this one right here, where price even
  368. 13:14pierce past the fair value gap
  369. 13:17and then go.
  370. 13:20So, do not expect the market to react
  371. 13:22the same way every time.
  372. 13:25Just draw out the fair value gap right
  373. 13:26there and don't assume that price is
  374. 13:28going to touch it and go. Okay, because
  375. 13:30there's sometimes where it will touch
  376. 13:31the 50% of it. There's also times where
  377. 13:33it will touch the extreme of it and then
  378. 13:35go. There's also times where price might
  379. 13:37break past the fair value gap, sweep
  380. 13:39some liquidity, and then go. Okay, so
  381. 13:42never, ever assume. Just use this as
  382. 13:45like a reference point, but like don't
  383. 13:48stick to it. Okay, like don't don't
  384. 13:49don't don't just expect or anticipate
  385. 13:52price to touch it and go.
  386. 13:55So, once again, you want to make sure
  387. 13:57that you are using this fair value gap
  388. 14:01with
  389. 14:02the other concepts, supply and demand
  390. 14:03zones, with you know, premium and
  391. 14:06discount.
  392. 14:07So, ideally, I want to look for bearish
  393. 14:10fair value gap that is within premium
  394. 14:12pricing. I want to short from there. And
  395. 14:14I want to look for longs at the
  396. 14:18fair value gap, the bullish fair value
  397. 14:20gap that is within the discount ranges
  398. 14:21itself.
  399. 14:25And one way that you can use fair value
  400. 14:26gap is that you can use it as a way for
  401. 14:29you to actually enter on your trade,
  402. 14:30right? So, for example, the minute price
  403. 14:32mitigate this bearish fair value gap,
  404. 14:34you can look for shorts. And then short
  405. 14:35it all the way down here.
  406. 14:37Another way you can use fair value gap
  407. 14:39is to use them as targets because that
  408. 14:41is where price is gravitating towards.
  409. 14:44So, for example, if let's say like I
  410. 14:47drew I want to enter for a sell at this
  411. 14:49fair value gap right here.
  412. 14:51And then I want to target maybe this
  413. 14:53next fair value gap that we have on the
  414. 14:55left-hand side over here.
  415. 14:57Okay?
  416. 14:58This is where you can potentially look
  417. 15:00for shorts the minute price mitigate
  418. 15:01this bearish fair value gap. And you can
  419. 15:03potentially target the next fair value
  420. 15:07gap, which is where price is gravitating
  421. 15:09towards next, which is this one right
  422. 15:11here, right? This is the next bullish
  423. 15:13fair value gap.
  424. 15:14Yeah, so you can either use it to help
  425. 15:16you enter your trades or you can also
  426. 15:18use it to help you to set your take
  427. 15:21profit.
  428. 15:23Because once again, you must understand
  429. 15:24that that is just a price point in which
  430. 15:27price is gravitating toward.
  431. 15:30It doesn't always have to fill up the
  432. 15:31fair value gap, but a lot of times it
  433. 15:34tends to do that before continuing
  434. 15:36moving off.
  435. 15:39So, maybe let me just go through like a
  436. 15:41few more examples. Or maybe I can show
  437. 15:44you how I would use it live as well.
  438. 15:46Right? So, let's just look at this one
  439. 15:48right here.
  440. 15:51Okay, so in this case,
  441. 15:54let's say price has been coming down
  442. 15:55here very aggressively. Okay, very
  443. 15:58aggressively coming down. You look at
  444. 16:00the internal structure. You saw that
  445. 16:01prices came down, pull back, and then
  446. 16:03goes down even further creating like an
  447. 16:05internal break of structure to the
  448. 16:07downside just like this.
  449. 16:10Okay, so this becomes my swing high.
  450. 16:14And then this becomes my swing low.
  451. 16:16Well, my swing low has not been formed
  452. 16:17yet since price has not made a pullback,
  453. 16:19right? So, let's just wait. Okay, the
  454. 16:21minute price has been back there, I can
  455. 16:22move my swing low here. So, now once
  456. 16:24again, just using all the concepts that
  457. 16:26we have learned so far, this is where
  458. 16:28you can map out your premium and
  459. 16:29discount.
  460. 16:30Okay? And right now we are anticipating
  461. 16:32price to pull back to the premium range
  462. 16:34before continuing down even further.
  463. 16:37It doesn't have to, but if it does, good
  464. 16:39for us. It's just an additional
  465. 16:41confluence. But like I said, it doesn't
  466. 16:42have to.
  467. 16:43And then maybe I can draw my supply
  468. 16:45zone, right? Just by marking out this
  469. 16:47pivot
  470. 16:49candle right here at this extreme end,
  471. 16:52right? There we have six uh supply zone.
  472. 16:56Okay? And then now, introducing this new
  473. 16:59concept of imbalance of fair value gap,
  474. 17:01I'm asking myself, "Okay, where is the
  475. 17:03strong displacement in this entire
  476. 17:05move?" Because once I identify the
  477. 17:07strong displacement, which is really
  478. 17:09just a fancy word
  479. 17:10of a big bullish or bearish candlestick,
  480. 17:14then I can identify my fair value gap,
  481. 17:16right? So, in this case,
  482. 17:18once again, I'll say like just use your
  483. 17:20naked eyes and just compare it with the
  484. 17:24size of the candlesticks that is near
  485. 17:27it, right? So, that's how you kind of
  486. 17:28tell whether it is big or small. You
  487. 17:30just find like use your common sense and
  488. 17:33try to find like the biggest
  489. 17:34candlesticks in here. And then just try
  490. 17:36to com- compare it with like the
  491. 17:38preceding candlesticks, right? If it's
  492. 17:39way bigger than them, right? If it's
  493. 17:41like a big boy, then you know that
  494. 17:43there's probably a strong displacement.
  495. 17:45So, in this case, big candlestick right
  496. 17:47here. Okay? Then now I'm looking at a
  497. 17:49candlestick that comes before it and a
  498. 17:51candlestick that comes after it.
  499. 17:53So, for the candlestick that comes
  500. 17:55before it, this is where I mark up the
  501. 17:56low. And then for the candlestick that
  502. 17:58came after it, this is where I mark up
  503. 17:59the high.
  504. 18:00So, now, is there a gap? Yes, there is,
  505. 18:03right? There is a gap which tells that
  506. 18:05there's an imbalance or inefficiency or
  507. 18:07fair value gap or whatever name you like
  508. 18:08to call it.
  509. 18:10So, this tells us that price is going to
  510. 18:11be gravitating towards that gap, fill up
  511. 18:14that gap before continuing down even
  512. 18:17further.
  513. 18:18Right? So, in this case, this becomes my
  514. 18:21fair value gap.
  515. 18:23Right there. Okay, so that is the most
  516. 18:25recent
  517. 18:27bearish fair value gap.
  518. 18:31Now, is there any other fair value gap
  519. 18:32right here? Well, let's look at the
  520. 18:34candlesticks, right? Is there a fair
  521. 18:35value gap say around here? Nope, because
  522. 18:38this low is around the same level as
  523. 18:41this high right here. Is there a fair
  524. 18:43value gap around here? Well, this is the
  525. 18:45low of the previous candlestick, this is
  526. 18:46the high. So, nope, no gap. So, no gap,
  527. 18:48no gap, no gap. Only here have a gap.
  528. 18:50Okay, so this is like the only fair
  529. 18:52value gap inside this entire move to the
  530. 18:54downside itself.
  531. 18:56And just observe what price does next.
  532. 18:59Okay, price pretty much came up there,
  533. 19:01mitigates the fair value gap, and then
  534. 19:03continuing down even further. And I
  535. 19:06believe it's going to start reversing
  536. 19:08anytime right now.
  537. 19:12Oops, that's a little bit too fast.
  538. 19:14Okay, but it ends up consolidating
  539. 19:15around here and then eventually reverse.
  540. 19:17Okay, so if you were to trade this fair
  541. 19:20value gap, right? You can potentially
  542. 19:21look for shorts.
  543. 19:23The minute price mitigate this fair
  544. 19:24value gap, place a stop loss above the
  545. 19:26fair value gap and just target like 3R
  546. 19:29or 2.5R,
  547. 19:31you know. We are going to talk more
  548. 19:32about where to place a stop loss and
  549. 19:33where to place a take profit later on,
  550. 19:35but for now, not going to focus on
  551. 19:37entries and exits. Just going to focus
  552. 19:39on sharing with you guys like this fair
  553. 19:41value gap concept and just helping you
  554. 19:43guys implement it. So, yeah. In this
  555. 19:45case, right? This could potentially
  556. 19:46worked out. And where would he have been
  557. 19:48able to target? Well,
  558. 19:50you know, another way that you can use
  559. 19:52fair value gap is to use it as a price
  560. 19:54point to actually target, right? So, in
  561. 19:57this case, maybe let's come back here.
  562. 19:59So, let's say you got to enter the trade
  563. 20:00right here. You enter for shorts, you
  564. 20:02know,
  565. 20:03and you place a stop loss above the fair
  566. 20:05value gap, and now you are you don't
  567. 20:06know where to actually target.
  568. 20:08Okay, so what you can potentially do is
  569. 20:11to find what's what's the next opposing
  570. 20:13fair value gap. So, if I'm entering for
  571. 20:15a sell at a bearish fair value gap, I
  572. 20:17want to target the next bullish fair
  573. 20:19value gap because that's where I'm
  574. 20:21expecting price to move towards next and
  575. 20:24then reverse to the upside.
  576. 20:26So, this is where I'm looking at the
  577. 20:27left-hand side, looking at the price
  578. 20:29action that just happened right here,
  579. 20:31and I'm asking myself, where is the most
  580. 20:33recent bullish fair value gap? Because
  581. 20:35that's potentially where I can set my
  582. 20:37take profit. So, I'm looking at the
  583. 20:39left-hand side right here.
  584. 20:41What about that price went up? Right,
  585. 20:43strong displacement to the upside, cool.
  586. 20:45Let's go step by step. Big candlestick
  587. 20:48right here, and then followed by another
  588. 20:50candlestick and followed by another
  589. 20:51bigger candlestick itself. So, just by
  590. 20:53doing this alone, I can map this as a
  591. 20:55fair value gap because
  592. 20:57this high right here and then this low
  593. 21:00of the next candlestick was formed,
  594. 21:02creating us like a fair value gap just
  595. 21:04like this. And then there could
  596. 21:05potentially be another fair value gap
  597. 21:07right here, right from this previous
  598. 21:10high um and to this new low right here.
  599. 21:13So, there's actually two fair value gaps
  600. 21:15in this case.
  601. 21:16And if you go down to the 5-minute time
  602. 21:18frame, you will see that price actually
  603. 21:22end up
  604. 21:23coming down to the second one,
  605. 21:25respecting the second one, maybe coming
  606. 21:27even deeper into what we would call an
  607. 21:29order block over here, which you're
  608. 21:30going to learn in the next lesson, and
  609. 21:33then starts moving to the upside. Right,
  610. 21:35so I'll say like what you can do is to
  611. 21:37use it either to
  612. 21:40enter on a retracement, right? Use it to
  613. 21:42to like allow yourself to gauge where
  614. 21:44price is retracing to,
  615. 21:47or you can also use it as a target area
  616. 21:49because that's where price is most
  617. 21:51likely going to move towards the area
  618. 21:52next in order to rebalance.
  619. 21:55Obviously, like if you were to place a
  620. 21:56take profit at this fair value gap, it's
  621. 21:58not the best like risk-to-reward
  622. 22:00decision unless you're scalping. You
  623. 22:02know, if you're scalping, you could
  624. 22:03potentially enter like upon the
  625. 22:05mitigation of this fair value gap, stop
  626. 22:06loss above that high, and then just
  627. 22:08target like this low right here. But
  628. 22:10like I said, I don't want to get too
  629. 22:12deep into the nitty-gritty details when
  630. 22:14it comes to entering and exiting because
  631. 22:15I really want you to like just
  632. 22:17familiarize yourself with this concept
  633. 22:18of fair value gap itself. Because like I
  634. 22:20said, it's a very simple concept, but if
  635. 22:22applied well, it's actually pretty
  636. 22:24powerful.
  637. 22:26Now,
  638. 22:27I can't emphasize this enough, but just
  639. 22:30because you can identify that fair value
  640. 22:32gap, does not necessarily mean that it's
  641. 22:35going to hold.
  642. 22:37Remember, the whole gist of a fair value
  643. 22:39gap is that that's where price is going
  644. 22:42to move towards next.
  645. 22:44But it doesn't tell you that, okay,
  646. 22:45that's where price is going to move
  647. 22:46towards next and it's going to hold. No.
  648. 22:50It just says that it's a magnet that's
  649. 22:52drawing the price towards that area.
  650. 22:55Whether that area holds or not, that's
  651. 22:56another story.
  652. 22:58That depends on the market structure,
  653. 22:59depends on whether there was liquidity,
  654. 23:02depends on so many different other
  655. 23:03factors.
  656. 23:05So,
  657. 23:06that's why you don't ever ever want to
  658. 23:08assume that a fair value gap is going to
  659. 23:10hold. This is the mistake that a lot of
  660. 23:12people make. They just trade fair value
  661. 23:14gaps alone, right? When price mitigate
  662. 23:16the fair value gap, they immediately
  663. 23:17enter for a trade without realizing that
  664. 23:21you know, it's not going to hold because
  665. 23:23the structure is against you, you are
  666. 23:25trading at the wrong location, you are
  667. 23:28trading a bullish fair value gap in a
  668. 23:30premium pricing, you know, like you
  669. 23:32don't take into account the
  670. 23:34context of the market. And as a result,
  671. 23:37you fail trading the fair value gap. So,
  672. 23:40just to give you an example of what I
  673. 23:41mean by that, look at this. Strong move
  674. 23:44to the upside, right? Strong move to the
  675. 23:46upside, very strong displacement right
  676. 23:48here, big bullish candlestick, a lot of
  677. 23:50buying pressure, a lot a lot of buying
  678. 23:52intent, a lot of buying momentum.
  679. 23:55So, just by looking at this alone, I can
  680. 23:57see that, okay, this is the high, this
  681. 23:58is the low, boom, my fair value gap is
  682. 24:00right there.
  683. 24:01And in this case,
  684. 24:04price has pretty much
  685. 24:06come down, right? It's retracing. At
  686. 24:09this point of time, your immediate
  687. 24:10instinct should be, okay,
  688. 24:13price is retracing. Now, where is price
  689. 24:16most likely going to retrace towards
  690. 24:17next?
  691. 24:18The fair value gap. That's it.
  692. 24:20Okay, that's what you use fair value
  693. 24:22gaps for. For you to know where price is
  694. 24:24most likely going to retrace to because
  695. 24:26that's the area where price needs to
  696. 24:28balance before it continue moving. So,
  697. 24:30in this case,
  698. 24:32I'm not going to be entering for a buy
  699. 24:33right here.
  700. 24:35I'm not going to be entering for a buy
  701. 24:36right here. I'm only going to enter for
  702. 24:38a buy if price has come back down to my
  703. 24:40fair value gap, and that is where the
  704. 24:42balance can potentially occur.
  705. 24:44Right, so in this case, price comes down
  706. 24:46to the fair value gap. Now, I will
  707. 24:48consider looking for longs if I have
  708. 24:50multiple confluences.
  709. 24:52Right, if I have multiple confluences
  710. 24:54that tell me that it's a good idea to
  711. 24:55enter for longs, then boom, this is
  712. 24:56where I can enter for a longs.
  713. 24:58If not, then I would just be using this
  714. 25:01as a reference point for me to know
  715. 25:03where price is moving towards next, and
  716. 25:06that's it. I will not trade it. So, in
  717. 25:08this case, let's continue to see what
  718. 25:10price does. Price came down and break
  719. 25:13right through it.
  720. 25:17Like I said, it's not just about the
  721. 25:18fair value gap alone, it's about a
  722. 25:20myriad other different factors
  723. 25:24for you to actually develop a great
  724. 25:26trade idea.
  725. 25:29So, yeah, I hope I've shown you guys
  726. 25:31like multiple examples, right? Just to
  727. 25:33really
  728. 25:34ensure that, you know, you are super
  729. 25:36duper familiar with like just applying
  730. 25:38this concept and just knowing that it's
  731. 25:40not as simple as, oh, buy at a fair
  732. 25:42value gap, a bullish fair value gap, or
  733. 25:44sell at a bearish fair value gap.
  734. 25:46You need to take into account of the
  735. 25:48liquidity, the market structure, the
  736. 25:50zones around it, right? A lot of
  737. 25:52different other factors, which we are
  738. 25:54going to continue talking about over the
  739. 25:56next few lessons itself.
  740. 26:00So, to keep it simple, just to sum up
  741. 26:02everything, an imbalance or a fair value
  742. 26:06gap
  743. 26:07is an inefficient area in the market
  744. 26:10that is created when the price moved
  745. 26:13very aggressively in one direction.
  746. 26:15Basically, in simple English, it just
  747. 26:18tell us that at this point in time,
  748. 26:20smart money have entered for a large
  749. 26:22amount of buy orders,
  750. 26:25causing price to move up so aggressively
  751. 26:28that it just created this gap, just left
  752. 26:30behind this gap.
  753. 26:31Same thing for the bearish fair value
  754. 26:33gap, but instead of buy orders, they
  755. 26:35enter for a ton of sell orders,
  756. 26:37causing price to collapse so fast, so
  757. 26:39far that it left behind a gap just like
  758. 26:41this.
  759. 26:42And remember when we talk about the
  760. 26:44supply and demand concept, where we
  761. 26:45talked that
  762. 26:46when smart money push price in a sudden
  763. 26:49direction, it tends to cause price to
  764. 26:52retrace back to that same direction so
  765. 26:55that they can fill up the remaining
  766. 26:56orders.
  767. 26:57It could be the same thing in this case
  768. 26:59right here. After a bullish fair value
  769. 27:01gap just like this, smart money might
  770. 27:02want to cause price to come back down
  771. 27:05to this fair value gap,
  772. 27:07and then look for more buy orders,
  773. 27:10causing price to continue going up.
  774. 27:14Okay, so that's the concept of fair
  775. 27:16value gap. It's very simple. It's
  776. 27:19basically huge move, and we are
  777. 27:21expecting price to retrace to fill up
  778. 27:23that huge move and then going up even
  779. 27:26further. Just tying back to the cycle of
  780. 27:30imbalance, balance, imbalance, and then
  781. 27:33balance, and then imbalance again.
  782. 27:36That's just the build of price, right?
  783. 27:38That's just how price fundamentally
  784. 27:41move.
  785. 27:42But like everything else in trading,
  786. 27:44it's not just about identifying and
  787. 27:46trading the fair value gap. It's about
  788. 27:49learning how to use it
  789. 27:51in the right market conditions, learning
  790. 27:54how to combine it with other confluences
  791. 27:56to develop a proper trade idea.
  792. 28:00That's what a fair value gap is. And in
  793. 28:02the next lesson, or I don't know, like
  794. 28:05the next few lessons, I'm going to talk
  795. 28:06about an order block, which is a concept
  796. 28:09which requires you to really understand
  797. 28:11imbalance or fair value gap. If you
  798. 28:13don't understand whatever I just covered
  799. 28:15for like the past 30 minutes or so,
  800. 28:17please make sure you rewatch it, right?
  801. 28:19Rewatch it over and over again until you
  802. 28:22get it. And not only must you get it,
  803. 28:23but you must also know how to implement
  804. 28:25it.
  805. 28:27If you know how to implement it, then
  806. 28:29you can move on to the next lesson. If
  807. 28:31you don't, then I'll say like keep on
  808. 28:32practicing, keep on like training your
  809. 28:35brain to like spot this fair value gap
  810. 28:37and spot these imbalances.
  811. 28:39And most importantly, please just watch
  812. 28:42these lessons in chronological order,
  813. 28:44right? Because if you skip this lesson
  814. 28:46and you move on to the order block
  815. 28:47lesson, you wouldn't know
  816. 28:49anything that I'm talking about on the
  817. 28:51order block because like each lesson is
  818. 28:53built on top of the previous lesson
  819. 28:54itself. Right, so if you want to learn
  820. 28:56how to trade order block, you have to
  821. 28:58first learn how to identify imbalance.
  822. 29:02Because you can only find an order block
  823. 29:04when you have identified imbalance,
  824. 29:06right? So, all of these concepts
  825. 29:07literally built on top of each other
  826. 29:08like a pyramid. And if you, you know,
  827. 29:11just skip to the next level for going to
  828. 29:13the previous level, it's like going to
  829. 29:16fight the level 100 boss in a video game
  830. 29:18when you haven't even defeated the level
  831. 29:2020 boss.
  832. 29:22Right? So, stop trying to rush the
  833. 29:23process, continue plugging through these
  834. 29:26courses and lessons in chronological
  835. 29:28order, continue getting better at
  836. 29:31understanding these concepts and just
  837. 29:33applying them.
  838. 29:34Okay, so maybe I'll just give you one
  839. 29:35last example to end off this video
  840. 29:37itself, right? Just to show you um like
  841. 29:40how it really works once again because I
  842. 29:43just really want to
  843. 29:44emphasize the importance of this concept
  844. 29:46itself. So, price came down very
  845. 29:48aggressively, strong displacement in
  846. 29:50price. Okay, immediately spotted the
  847. 29:52strong displacement. When you do that,
  848. 29:54this is where you can look at the candle
  849. 29:55came before it and the candle came after
  850. 29:57it. And when you do, find the low of the
  851. 29:59previous candle, find the high of the
  852. 30:01next candle if it's a bearish fair value
  853. 30:02gap, and drag it out just like this. And
  854. 30:04boom, there is a fair value gap. And in
  855. 30:06this case, price came up, mitigate the
  856. 30:08fair value gap, continue going down, but
  857. 30:10there was not enough liquidity, there
  858. 30:11was not enough fuel. So, as a result, it
  859. 30:13actually came back up and mitigate the
  860. 30:16order block, which is what we're going
  861. 30:17to cover next, and then continuing down
  862. 30:20even further.
  863. 30:21Right. So, hopefully by now you have
  864. 30:23seen like how important it is to like
  865. 30:26just really have multiple weapons in the
  866. 30:28arsenal so that you can like maneuver
  867. 30:31and change to a different position when
  868. 30:33your enemy is fighting from in the other
  869. 30:35direction.
  870. 30:37That's what trading's really about,
  871. 30:38right? It's just really about having as
  872. 30:40much confluence as as possible to make
  873. 30:42the most sense out of the market.
  874. 30:44So that you can have the probabilities
  875. 30:47on your side, right? So that you can
  876. 30:49have the odds on your side rather than
  877. 30:51having them stacked against you.
  878. 30:54With that said, I look forward to
  879. 30:55teaching you guys a new concept in the
  880. 30:57next lesson. And as always, remember
  881. 30:59you're just one trade away. Mwah.

About this transcript

This page contains the full transcript of Market Mechanics Ep 9: Fair Value Gaps / Imbalance by Brad Goh (The Trading Geek), generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 5,771 words across 881 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.

What you can do with it

Use the transcript to take notes, quote the speaker, build a study guide, generate a summary with ChatGPT or Claude via the YouTube Summary tool, or export it as a timed subtitle file with YouTube to SRT. You can also re-open it in the transcriber to choose a caption track available on the video.

Free YouTube transcript tool

YouTube2Text is a free YouTube transcript generator — no signup, no daily limit. Paste any YouTube link and get the full transcript instantly, with timestamps, click-to-jump, caption language selection, AI prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and exports to TXT, SRT, VTT, or Markdown.