Short answer: a liquidity sweep is a quick move past an obvious level — just far enough to trigger the stop orders resting there — followed by a close back inside. It looks like a breakout on the wick and turns out to be a trap on the close.
Traders put their stops in the same obvious places: just under equal lows, just over equal highs, just past a round number or a well-known swing. Those clusters are pools of orders, and large traders need orders to fill size.
The difference is always the close on your timeframe — which is why a read should be based on closes, never on wicks.
Two or more highs at almost the same price are a magnet: everyone sees them, so stops pile up just beyond. Price often runs them before it decides. When you see equal lows just under a floor, a dip under the floor that closes back above is more likely to be a sweep than a break.
Sylvo's market reads name the stop pools sitting just past the edges of the box when they are there.
Yes, two names for the same thing: a quick move through the obvious stops, then back.
Avoid placing stops exactly at the obvious spot — just under equal lows or a round number. Use closes, and place the stop where the idea is actually wrong, not where everyone else's is.
Often. A sweep of the lows that closes back above support, at a level that held before, is one of the cleaner long setups — the stops are gone and the level held.