POI Refinement: How to Narrow a Daily Zone to a 1-Minute Entry

You mark a daily demand zone. It's enormous — maybe 150 to 200 pips wide. Price is heading toward it. Now what?

You don't trade the daily zone directly. You refine it. Drop to the 4-hour, find the candle within the daily zone that actually matters. Drop to the 15-minute, find the specific wick or impulse origin. Drop to the 1-minute, find the exact candle that took liquidity and reversed. That candle — not the 200-pip daily zone — is your entry.

The Refinement Workflow

Step 1: Daily — Identify the Zone

Start with the daily chart. Identify your demand or supply zone — the area where you expect a significant reaction. This is your broad target. It tells you WHERE price is headed, not where you enter.

Look for:

• An unmitigated zone (hasn't been touched since it formed)
• A liquidity POI (took liquidity before the zone was created)
• Correct positioning (demand in discount, supply in premium of the higher timeframe leg)

Step 2: 4-Hour — Find the Candle That Matters

Drop to the 4-hour chart. Within the daily zone, you'll see multiple candles. Most of them don't matter. You're looking for one specific candle or wick:

• The wick that reaches deepest into the zone — this is where institutions entered
• An unmitigated candle — one that hasn't been revisited since
• A candle that took liquidity — swept a structural level or equal highs/lows before reversing

On the 4-hour, your 200-pip daily zone narrows to maybe 40-60 pips. That's better, but still not precise enough for a tight entry.

Step 3: 15-Minute — Find the Liquidity Point

Drop to the 15-minute chart. Within the 4-hour zone, look for the specific candle or series of candles that created the aggressive reversal. Focus on:

• Wicks — the true origin of the move often hides in the wick, not the body
• Liquidity events — did the 15-minute price take out a structural level before reversing? If yes, the zone right at that reversal point is your 15-minute liquidity POI
• Structural breaks — the 15-minute candle that caused a break of structure to the upside (for demand) after the liquidity sweep

This narrows your zone to maybe 10-20 pips. Getting closer.

Step 4: 1-Minute — The Precise Entry

Drop to the 1-minute chart. Within the 15-minute zone, find the exact candle that took the deepest liquidity and initiated the reversal. This is usually:

• A wick candle that swept below the structural level
• The candle that both took liquidity AND broke structure — this is the exact origin of institutional entry
• An unmitigated 1-minute candle — one that hasn't been revisited

Your 200-pip daily zone is now a 3-5 pip entry zone. Your stop goes just beyond this 1-minute candle. If this level breaks, the entire higher timeframe thesis is invalidated.

Why This Works

The refinement process works because every timeframe shows the same price — just at different scales. The daily zone contains the 4-hour move, which contains the 15-minute impulse, which contains the 1-minute entry.

When you refine, you're not guessing. You're finding the exact point within the larger zone where institutional money entered. That point — the 1-minute liquidity POI within a 15-minute zone within a 4-hour zone within a daily level — is where the highest concentration of orders sits.

The Key Rule

"A 1-minute zone in no man's land is worthless. A 1-minute zone within a 15-minute zone within a 4-hour level is your best entry."

Never trade a 1-minute zone just because it looks clean on the 1-minute chart. It must be a refinement of something higher. The higher timeframe gives the zone its significance. The lower timeframe gives you precision.

Practical Example

You're looking at EUR/USD. The daily shows a massive demand zone — an unmitigated wick from three weeks ago. Price is heading toward it.

Daily view: Zone spans from 1.0800 to 1.0950. Way too wide for a direct entry.

4-hour view: Within that daily zone, you spot one 4-hour candle with a huge wick that swept below equal lows and reversed aggressively. The wick extends from 1.0820 to 1.0860. That 40-pip range is your refined 4-hour demand.

15-minute view: Within the 4-hour wick, you see price took out a structural level at 1.0835, reversed immediately, and broke structure to the upside. The 15-minute zone sits at 1.0825-1.0840. That's your 15-minute liquidity POI — it took liquidity and broke structure.

1-minute view: Within the 15-minute zone, you find the exact 1-minute candle that wicked below the structural level at 1.0828 and closed at 1.0833. This 5-pip zone is your entry. Stop at 1.0825 (3 pips below). Risk: 8 pips total for an entry derived from a daily level.

When NOT to Refine

Not every zone needs full refinement:

1. Clean 15-minute zones — if the 15-minute already shows a clear liquidity POI with tight structure, you might not need to go to the 1-minute. Over-refining a zone that's already precise adds unnecessary complication.

2. Inside bars — if the zone is an inside bar, the refinement IS the inside bar. There's nothing to dig into further.

3. Time pressure — if price is approaching fast and you don't have time to refine across all timeframes, use the lowest timeframe where you can clearly identify the zone. A good 15-minute entry beats a rushed 1-minute analysis.

Common Mistakes

Marking Random 1-Minute Zones

The biggest mistake: marking 1-minute supply and demand zones everywhere on the 1-minute chart without checking if they refine a higher timeframe level. A 1-minute zone that doesn't sit within a significant 15-minute or 4-hour level is just noise.

Skipping Timeframes

Going directly from the daily to the 1-minute. You'll miss the structural context that the 4-hour and 15-minute provide. Each timeframe adds a layer of precision AND context. The 4-hour tells you which part of the daily zone matters. The 15-minute tells you where within that 4-hour area the liquidity event happened. The 1-minute gives you the exact entry.

Refining Into Bodies Instead of Wicks

The real demand or supply usually hides in the wick, not the body. When refining, focus on the wick of the candle that reversed price — that's where the actual institutional entry happened. The body is just where price settled after the entry was made.

Key Takeaway

POI refinement is the process of narrowing a large higher timeframe zone into a precise lower timeframe entry. Start with the daily zone, refine to the 4-hour candle that matters, narrow to the 15-minute liquidity event, and pinpoint the 1-minute origin candle. Each step adds precision while maintaining the higher timeframe significance. The result: a 3-5 pip entry zone derived from a 200-pip daily level. The higher timeframe gives significance; the lower timeframe gives precision.