Higher highs and higher lows = bullish. Lower highs and lower lows = bearish. Every swing high = BSL pool. Every swing low = SSL pool. Structure tells you where the pools are and which direction price is delivering toward.
Prior highs are not resistance — they are buy-side liquidity pools. Prior lows are not support — they are sell-side liquidity pools. Price targets these pools because institutions need the opposing order flow. “Will this level hold?” becomes “which pool is price targeting next?”
The range between a swing high and low. The CE (50% midpoint) divides it into premium (above, institutional selling zone) and discount (below, institutional buying zone). Buy from discount. Sell from premium.
The last candle before a significant displacement — where institutional accumulation orders were placed. The OB body CE (open + close / 2) is the precision entry price. The primary ICT entry zone.
A price imbalance created when a displacement candle skips through price so quickly that C1’s far wick to C3’s near wick was not fully filled. The FVG CE = precision entry. Often tighter than the OB CE.
GBP/USD secondary. NAS100 for equity index. EUR/USD has the tightest spreads and cleanest ICT patterns.
1H for daily bias + dealing range. 15M for session structure + PD arrays. 5M for entry timing. 1M optional for precision.
Horizontal lines (BSL/SSL, PDH/PDL). Fibonacci retracement (OTE 0.62–0.79). Rectangles (OB/FVG zones). No indicators needed — ICT is price-based.
Mark BSL/SSL at all major swing points. Determine premium/discount. Mark OBs and FVGs. NOT yet trading live or calling direction with confidence.
Determine daily bias from midnight open. Spot the London Judas. Mark the MSS FVG. Backtest the 2022 model. NOT yet trading live capital.
Execute the 2022 model or silver bullet in real time on demo. Journal every session. See positive expectancy in the data. Consider live with minimum size.
Learning OBs, FVGs, breaker blocks, BPR, Judas, AMD, kill zones, macros, the 2022 model, and the silver bullet in the first month = surface familiarity with all, deep understanding of none. Follow the phase approach: Phase 1 solid before Phase 2.
Identifying a “perfect FVG” without knowing if you’re in premium or discount, or whether the AMD direction supports it, produces entries in the right pattern but the wrong context.
RSI, MACD, moving averages — none are used in ICT. If you feel you need an indicator, it means a foundational concept needs more study, not that a new tool is needed.
The most common cause of early ICT losses. Demo builds the automatic pattern recognition that live trading demands under emotional pressure. More demo time = always the correct decision.
Without the journal, practice is chart-watching with good intentions. The journal forces commitment before revelation, creates measurable performance data, and drives targeted improvement.
Lio has traded ICT and Smart Money Concepts on forex majors and US indices since 2021 and built LiquiditySweeps.com to teach the framework the way it should be learned: in sequence, on real charts, with free live tools instead of paid indicators.
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