POI: Point of Interest
Also known as: POI, area of interest, zone of interest, trade location
What is it?
A point of interest is any price area you have marked in advance where you expect a reaction and will look for an entry. It is a container term, not a pattern: the POI on your chart is an order block, a fair value gap, a breaker, or a liquidity pool - whichever array you decided to trade from. The word exists because the entry model and the array are separate decisions. You choose the POI on the higher timeframe by asking where price is likely to react, then drop to a lower timeframe and wait for the confirmation that turns a level into a trade.
| Array you can mark as a POI | What forms it | Makes it worth keeping | Makes it clutter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Order block | Last opposing candle before a displacement leg | Still unmitigated, with a liquidity pool beyond it | Price has already closed through it |
| Fair value gap | The unfilled gap between candle 1 and candle 3 | Sits in discount for longs, premium for shorts | Already filled past its 50% midpoint |
| Breaker block | A failed order block price closed through | The break also shifted market structure | Traded in the block's original direction |
| Liquidity pool | Equal highs or lows with stops resting behind | Untouched, and reachable in the session | Already swept earlier in the day |
Marking a POI is not a signal to enter; it is a place to start paying attention. On EUR/USD, a 4-hour bearish order block at 1.0930 to 1.0946 was the POI for a session. Price rallied into 1.0938, printed a 5-minute market structure shift, and the short filled at 1.0936 with a stop above 1.0950 and a target at 1.0880 - a 14-pip risk for 56 pips of reward, taken from a level marked six hours earlier. Quality separates a useful POI from chart clutter.
The ones worth keeping are unmitigated, sit on the correct side of the dealing range for the direction you want, and have a liquidity pool beyond them to draw price in. A chart with fifteen marked areas has no points of interest at all - it has a chart with fifteen places to lose money. Your capital is at risk on any of them. See /risk-warning.
Why it matters: It separates where you will trade from when you will trade, so entries come from levels chosen in advance rather than decided in the middle of a move.
The POI sets the location half of a trade; a well-chosen one gives a tight invalidation, and marking too many turns the chart into noise with no bias at all.
Real-world example
A 4H bearish order block at 1.0930-1.0946 on EUR/USD was marked hours ahead; price rallied to 1.0938, shifted structure on the 5m, and the short ran 56 pips against a 14-pip stop.
How SignalBots handles it
SignalBots signals arrive as a specific entry, invalidation and target rather than an area to watch, so you can compare an alert directly against the levels you had already marked. See /risk-warning.
Pro tip
Cap yourself at two or three points of interest per instrument per session - the discipline of choosing forces you to keep only the arrays that actually have liquidity beyond them.
Common pitfalls
Entering the moment price touches the area, when a point of interest is where you start watching for confirmation, not the confirmation itself.
Frequently asked questions
Is a point of interest the same as a supply or demand zone?
It overlaps but is broader. Supply and demand name a specific kind of zone; a point of interest is whatever array you have decided to trade from, which may be a gap, a breaker or a liquidity pool instead.
Which timeframe should I mark them on?
Mark on the timeframe that sets your bias, usually 1-hour or 4-hour for an intraday trader, then execute one or two timeframes lower. Marking on the same chart you enter on removes the advantage of choosing in advance.
How many should I have on a chart?
Few. Two or three per instrument keeps each one meaningful. Beyond that you will always be near a marked area, which means the marking has stopped filtering anything.
What makes one point of interest better than another?
It is unmitigated, it sits in premium for shorts or discount for longs, and there is a liquidity pool beyond it that gives price a reason to travel once it reacts.
Do I still need an entry trigger once price reaches it?
Yes. Most traders wait for a lower-timeframe structure shift or a displacement candle inside the area. Without a trigger you are trading the level's existence rather than any evidence it is being defended.
Trading involves substantial risk of loss. Historical and backtested results do not guarantee future performance. Read the full risk warning.
