Three candles step in the same direction, leaving a body-to-body gap behind. Usually it holds and price continues — but if a later retest closes clean through it, the block inverts, the same way an FVG can fail into an IFVG.
Setup
Price drifts up normally.
SETUP3-STEPHOLDSFAILSINVERT
Alternates bullish / bearish automatically
It doesn't always look like this
Suspension block vs. fair value gap — an FVG measures the gap between wicks (candle 1's high/low vs candle 3's). A suspension block measures the gap between bodies (opens and closes) — usually a tighter, stricter zone.
All three candles must step, not just the outer two — the middle candle's body has to sit inside the gap too. If it overlaps either neighbor, the sequence doesn't count.
Doesn't always take two retests — sometimes the very first retest is the one that closes through and inverts it. There's no rule that it has to hold once first.
A newer, less standardized concept — unlike OB or FVG, exact rules for suspension blocks vary more between traders and sources.