Market Structure

Market structure describes the shape price is tracing — the sequence of highs and lows it's making — and how it reacts when it reaches a level that has already proven to matter, like a prior session's high or an overnight low. It's a description of what already happened, not a prediction of what happens next.

Why the word gets used loosely

"Structure" gets applied to almost anything in trading content — a single moving average, a full Elliott Wave count, a gut feeling about trend. Used precisely, it comes down to a few concrete things: where price sits in its recent range, whether the sequence of highs and lows is climbing, falling, or sideways, and how price behaves at levels that are already known to matter.

Market structure shift

A "market structure shift" is what traders call the moment that sequence changes — a market making higher highs and higher lows starts printing a lower low instead, for example. It's the earliest evidence that the prevailing structure may be turning, which is why it's watched closely, and why it's often discussed alongside break of structure — a related but distinct term for the moment a specific swing point actually gets taken out.