What is Mitigation?
Mitigatsiya (OB'ni sinash)
In short
Price returning to an order block zone for the first time. That touch uses up the unfilled orders in the zone, so later touches are usually weaker.
Also known as: mitigated order block
Mitigation is price returning for the first time to an order block (OB) after a sharp move away from it. In smart money concepts (SMC), the area where an impulse began is thought to hold large players' unfilled orders. When price comes back, those orders get filled — the zone is "mitigated".
Why the first touch matters
On the first return most of the orders in the zone are filled, so the reaction is usually strongest then. On the second or third touch the zone is considered "exhausted" — fewer orders remain and a break-through becomes more likely.
In practice
- Fresh, untouched (unmitigated) OBs are marked separately.
- An entry is planned for the first return, with the stop beyond the zone.
- If the zone is broken, it may turn into a breaker block.
Limitations
"Orders left in the zone" is an interpretation; you can't see it directly. In US stocks liquidity is spread across many venues and nobody sees everyone else's orders. So it's sounder to use mitigation as part of confluence rather than as a standalone signal.
The last red candle before a strong rally is the order block. When price later returns to that zone, buyers are expected to step in again. A probability, not a promise.
Example
In an illustrative stock, price jumped sharply from $64 to $72. The last bearish candle before the impulse, $62–$64, is a bullish order block.
- A few days later price dropped into the zone for the first time at $63.50 and bounced to $69 — that's mitigation.
- A trader entering at $64 (stop $61.50, risk $2.50) with a target at $72 would make $8 = +3.2R.
- Later price came back to the zone a second time at $63, but this time the reaction was weak and price fell to $61 — the "exhausted" zone failed.
Mistakes and tips
Mark touched and untouched OBs in different colours so you never confuse which zone is still fresh.
Don't trade every OB: the impulse should be strong and should have produced a BOS.
Entering on a third touch of a zone often means trading against a breakout.
Frequently asked questions
- What does a mitigated order block mean?
- An order block that price has already returned to at least once. Such a zone often gives a weaker reaction on later touches.
- Is mitigation the same as a retest?
- They're similar — both are price returning to an important zone. Mitigation is an SMC term for the first return to an order block, while a retest is the general idea of returning to any broken level.
Learn it in the Academy
This term is covered with hands-on examples and a quiz in these lessons of the interactive course.
Try the theory without risk
Open a free account: demo trading with a $10,000 virtual balance, a trading journal, calculators and a step-by-step course.