What Is a Liquidation Heatmap?

A liquidation heatmap is a visual map of the price levels where leveraged traders are most likely to be forced out of their positions — either by hitting a stop-loss or by triggering a margin call. The brighter or denser a zone, the more stop orders and forced-liquidation orders are estimated to sit there. Those are resting orders that execute if price arrives, which is what makes the dense zones worth knowing about — not because price must go there, but because that is where your own stop would be in company.

Why these zones matter

See it on a real chart: Gold (XAUUSD) liquidation heatmap — the modeled clusters above and below the current price.

A cluster matters if price reaches it: multiple stops can execute in the same area and add short-lived order flow. The heatmap does not establish that price is drawn to the cluster or will reverse there. Ampeld's own historical test found no advantage over distance-matched control levels.

How a liquidation heatmap is built

There are two broad approaches. The first scrapes individual broker or exchange position data — which is fragmented, often unavailable, and legally grey. The second, which Ampeld uses, models the levels mathematically from standard OHLCV (open, high, low, close, volume) data. By combining volatility (ATR-based) modeling with the typical leverage tiers retail traders use (for example 25×, 50×, 100×), the engine estimates where stop-out thresholds concentrate without needing any private broker feed.

How to read the clusters

• Dense clusters above price = where short positions get stopped out (buy-side liquidity).
• Dense clusters below price = where long positions get stopped out (sell-side liquidity).
• Previous session, daily, and weekly highs/lows carry the heaviest modeled clusters, because the model assumes retail stops sit just beyond them.
• A cluster that price crosses is marked as swept. A rejection may follow, but the heatmap does not predict one.

Putting it to work

The practical use is to make stop distance a deliberate decision and to see whose stops yours sits beside. In our tests a stop inside a modeled cluster was hit no more often than one the same distance away, so the distance and the hour you enter matter more than the cluster. The map estimates where orders may sit; it does not observe them or predict direction. You can explore interactive heatmaps for forex, crypto, and stocks in the browser, with a free 24-hour-delayed tier and no card required.