Two traders each bet $500,000 on the same contract. One was desperate. The other was patient. The tape shows you which — if you know the difference between a sweep and a block. Most people don't. After this lesson, you will.
Lesson 3 of 9. You can spot unusual prints (Lesson 1) and read the market-wide picture (Lesson 2). Now the distinction that changes how much weight you give any single trade.
The analogy: two people buy the same house on the same street. One outbids five others in a frenzy, waiving inspection. The other negotiates quietly for a month and closes at an agreed price. Same house, same price — completely different urgency. Sweeps and blocks are those two buyers.
• Sweep: split across multiple exchanges to grab available size fast. The trader wanted in now and paid up through levels. Typical look: many small-to-mid prints, often repeating through the day (remember Lesson 1's repetition marker — this is where it lives).
• Block: one single negotiated print, desk-to-desk, price agreed in advance. Typical look: a few very large prints. Low urgency, serious size — structured institutional positioning.
The rule: sweeps tell you when someone couldn't wait → timing information. A sweep into a key level the day before an event is a very different signal than background flow. Blocks tell you where size agreed to sit → positioning information. October 5th's $1.76M CMCSA block is someone planting a flag, not someone in a hurry.
The classic mistake: treating all big prints equally. A $500K sweep and a $500K block are not the same trade — psychologically or informationally. Weight sweeps for urgency and timing; weight blocks for conviction and positioning.
Try it yourself: take any two big prints, classify each as sweep or block, and write one sentence on what each implies. If you can't tell them apart yet, you're not ready to weight them.
Full breakdown with real examples of each:
Tomorrow (Lesson 4): the bull/bear ratio — one number for which way the money leans.
You can now tell sweeps from blocks. Catch the next sweep live: start your 7-day free trial:
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