ICT Reclaimed Order Block — When a Failed OB Gets a Second Life
A Reclaimed Order Block is a failed OB that price returns to and validates from the new direction — proving that institutional interest at that level has resumed. It is one of the highest-conviction re-entry signals in ICT.
The ICT Reclaimed Order Block is a concept that bridges the gap between a failed Order Block (Mitigation Block) and the Breaker Block. When an Order Block fails — when price breaks through it rather than respecting it — most traders write off that zone entirely. But ICT teaches that failed OBs can be "reclaimed": when price returns to the zone after the failure and validates it from the new direction, the zone is reclaimed and becomes a high-conviction PD Array in the direction of the failure.
The Reclaimed OB Formation
The Reclaimed OB sequence has four stages. Stage One: an Order Block forms (last opposing candle before a significant move). Stage Two: price returns to the OB and breaks through it — the OB fails, becoming a Mitigation Block. Stage Three: the mitigated zone is retested from the new direction — price approaches it from below (for a failed bullish OB) or from above (for a failed bearish OB) and reacts, confirming the polarity flip. Stage Four: price pulls back to the zone again and holds — the zone has been "reclaimed" as a confirmed PD Array in the new direction.
The difference between a standard Breaker Block and a Reclaimed OB: a Breaker Block is simply a failed OB awaiting its first test from the new direction. A Reclaimed OB has already been tested from the new direction AND held on that test — it has been validated once. The second approach to a Reclaimed OB is typically sharper and more reliable than the first approach to a Breaker Block.
Why the Reclaimed OB Is Highly Reliable
The reclamation event represents a double confirmation of institutional interest at that zone. The first confirmation: the original OB formed because institutions placed orders there. The second confirmation: when the zone was retested after the polarity flip and held, institutions confirmed they are now positioned in the new direction at that level. Two rounds of institutional validation at the same zone create a highly robust PD Array.
Trading the Reclaimed OB
- diamondIdentify a failed OB (Mitigation Block) on your chart.
- diamondWatch for the first test of that zone from the new direction — does price react from the zone? If yes, the zone is being reclaimed.
- diamondOn the second approach to the zone, enter at the midpoint of the original OB candle. This is the Reclaimed OB entry.
- diamondStop: beyond the outer edge of the Reclaimed OB zone (below for bullish, above for bearish).
- diamondTarget: the next significant liquidity pool in the direction of the new delivery.
- diamondIf the Reclaimed OB also aligns with a FVG or BPR at the same level, the confluence makes it a top-tier setup.
Track your Mitigation Blocks carefully and note which ones get reclaimed. In a strongly trending market, OBs in the direction of the trend frequently fail and then get reclaimed as the trend uses the broken OB zones as continuation support/resistance. Identifying these reclamation events early — during the first retest after the polarity flip — gives you high-conviction entries with very tight stops right at the beginning of what is often a sustained directional move.