Reclaimed Order Block — The Recovered OB From the Market Maker Model

Most traders know the Order Block in one version: the last opposing candle before an impulse, a zone, a retest, an entry. But in the Market Maker Model — the skeleton on which ICT builds entire price campaigns — there is a special variant of the block that forms on the "wrong" side of the market and only shows its value later. That's the Reclaimed Order Block: a spot of quiet institutional accumulation that price revisits during the true move and from which it picks up its next tank of fuel. In this article we take the formation apart: where it comes from, what it looks like on BTC and ETH charts, and how to trade it.

What Is a Reclaimed Order Block

A Reclaimed Order Block is a candle (or narrow zone) where smart money accumulated positions before the market moved in the true direction — one that price later "reclaims", using it as support or resistance.

For this to make sense you need one mental image: in the Market Maker Model the market moves like a curve with two sides. There's a decline side (price working down toward a significant higher-timeframe level) and an advance side (price coming back up). In the Market Maker Buy Model the market first drops into liquidity and reaches a higher-timeframe PD Array, and only then turns and rallies. The institutions' problem is that their orders are too big to fill in one click — so they accumulate positions in tranches already on the way down, on the decline side of the curve. Each tranche leaves a footprint: a small, short-lived bounce upward — a mini-displacement in the middle of the decline.

And here comes the definition: a bullish Reclaimed Order Block is the last bearish candle before such a small upward displacement, formed on the decline side of the curve. When the market finally turns and rallies, price revisits those old accumulation candles along the way — "reclaims" them — and institutions use the same levels to add to their longs. The old blocks from the way down become support on the way up.

A bearish Reclaimed Order Block is the mirror image: the last bullish candle before a small downward displacement, formed on the advance side of the curve in the Market Maker Sell Model. During the model's decline phase these candles act as resistance and spots for adding shorts.

Note the paradox that confuses beginners: a bullish reclaimed block forms on the decline side of the curve, and a bearish one — on the advance side. Accumulation always happens on the opposite side from the true move. You'll find the full background in our articles on the Market Maker Buy Model and the Market Maker Sell Model.

How to Identify a Reclaimed Order Block Step by Step

You don't hunt for this formation cold — context first, candle second:

1. Confirm the Market Maker Model. Price is working down toward a significant higher-timeframe level (buy model) or climbing up toward one (sell model). Without that frame the "reclaimed" classification doesn't exist.
2. Mark the target higher-timeframe PD Array. An Order Block, FVG or breaker on D1/H4 — the level the market is reaching for before it turns.
3. Watch for accumulation footprints along the way. Series of small bodies interrupted by small, brief counter-trend bounces. That's the fingerprint of institutions building a position in tranches.
4. Identify the block candle. Bullish version: the last bearish candle before a small bounce up on the decline side. Bearish version: the last bullish candle before a small dip on the advance side.
5. Wait for the turn and the reclaim. The formation activates only once the market turns from the higher-timeframe level and price returns to the marked candle from the other side of the curve.

In practice you'll find two or three such blocks stacked one above another on a single curve — they work like the rungs of a ladder price climbs (or descends) toward the target. Tracking all the zones by hand can be tedious — our SRL indicator draws Order Blocks automatically, so you instantly see the reclaim candidates on the model's curve.

How to Trade the Reclaimed Order Block

The complete trade flow for the bullish version (the bearish one is a mirror):

Step 1 — the model's frame. Make sure the market has actually played out the scheme: a drop into liquidity, a reaction at the higher-timeframe PD Array, a turn confirmed by a structure shift. You look for entries only in the return phase — on the true side of the curve.

Step 2 — pick the block. Of the accumulation candles marked earlier, the most valuable is the one closest to current price and still untouched in the return phase. A fresh block reacts the cleanest.

Step 3 — wait for the return. Price rallies in impulses and corrects. You're interested in the correction that dips into the range of the block being reclaimed. You don't chase the impulse — the zone has to come to you.

Step 4 — lower-timeframe confirmation. When price enters the block, switch to M5/M1 and wait for a bullish structure shift, an SMT divergence on a correlated pair, or a fresh FVG breaking out of your zone. A mere touch of the block isn't enough — without confirmation you're catching a falling knife in the middle of a correction.

Step 5 — entry, stop, target. Enter at the block candle's body after confirmation. Stop loss below the block's low with a buffer — not right at the wick, because that's where the stop hunting happens. Target: the next liquidity pool in the direction of the move — an old high, equal highs, or an unfilled higher-timeframe FVG. In the Market Maker Model the natural final target is the zone the campaign launched from.

Example: BTC on H4 drops in three waves into a daily FVG, printing two clear accumulation pauses with small bounces on the way down. From the daily gap the market turns with force and breaks structure on H1. The first deeper correction lands exactly in the higher of the two accumulation blocks from the way down — and M5 prints a bullish structure shift. Entry at the block's body, stop with a buffer below its low, target at the equal highs from before the whole campaign. Block "reclaimed" — a textbook continuation.

Reclaimed OB, Breaker and Mitigation — How Not to Confuse Them

The three concepts look similar on the chart (an old block, price returning, a reaction), but their roles differ. A Breaker Block is a block that failed: price cut straight through it and the zone flipped polarity — old support acts as resistance from then on. A Mitigation Block is also a failed-block formation, except without a liquidity grab before the turn. A Reclaimed Order Block doesn't change roles — it's a zone of successful accumulation that, during the true move, keeps working in the direction it was born in. A bullish block from the way down supports the rally; nothing "breaks" here. The simplest test: if price broke through the block with candle bodies and is returning to it from the other side — think breaker/mitigation; if price turned at the HTF level and is returning to the block from the same side it formed on — think reclaim.

Common Mistakes

• Trading reclaimed blocks without a Market Maker Model. Without the curve and a target PD Array, "reclaimed" is just a label stuck on an ordinary old block. Context is part of the definition.
• Mixing up the sides of the curve. You look for bullish blocks on the decline side and bearish ones on the advance side. Swapping the sides flips the whole setup.
• Entering without lower-timeframe confirmation. A retest is a zone, not a signal. The trigger comes from an MSS on M5/M1, an SMT or a fresh FVG.
• A stop at the edge of the body. Wicks regularly reach deeper than the first test. The stop belongs beyond the block's extreme, with a buffer sized to BTC/ETH volatility.
• Treating every old block as reclaimed. A reclaim requires an accumulation footprint with a small displacement. A plain retest of a plain block is a different, weaker situation.
• Risking too much on a single setup. Even textbook reclaims fail. The standard stays the standard: a fraction of a percent up to 1% of capital per trade.

The Reclaimed Order Block is a formation for traders who look at the market in campaigns, not individual candles. It demands more context than a regular block — you need to see the curve, the higher-timeframe target and the accumulation footprints — but in return it delivers entries in the middle of the healthiest phase of a move: the continuation after the turn. Before you start trading it, solidify the basics with our Order Block article and walk through a few complete Market Maker Models on BTC's history. Once you've seen the ladder of reclaimed blocks on the curve, it's hard to stop seeing it.

FAQ

Rafał — Krypto Bez Ściemy

Trader and founder of Strefa Tradingu. He’s been breaking crypto down on YouTube for years — no hype, no signals, with a focus on market structure and risk management.

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