Definition

Scaling Aggression

When arriving aggression is substantially larger than what the available liquidity can absorb, overwhelming a level that previously held.

Full Explanation

Scaling aggression is the third reason a prior level breaks. The liquidity may still be there — the same participants, the same orders, the same shelf that held before. But the wave of aggression arriving this time is dramatically larger. What held a moderate wave cannot hold a much larger one. The level breaks not because of consumption or withdrawal, but because the force applied exceeds what even a well-stocked shelf can absorb. Like consumption and withdrawal, this is invisible from the chart — all three produce the same result.

In the Book 1 chapter

Chapter 4 · The Mechanics

The Living Order Book

There’s a belief that floats around trading communities, stated so often it’s become assumed wisdom: if a level has been tested multiple times, it’s getting weaker. The idea is that each visit to a level chips away at the liquidity sitting there — buyers or sellers getting used up — and eventually there won’t be enough left to hold, and the level breaks.