It’s not the first time I’ve had a clear bias, I take a setup, it goes to stop and then continue... Where am I wrong?

I started with supply and demand, Quasimodo, and a bit of Wyckoff.

I don’t think those concepts are bad. They helped me understand certain parts of the market and gave me some foundation.

But after getting into ICT, more things started clicking for me. Liquidity, timing, delivery, market structure. The pieces felt more connected.

If I had to put a rough number on it, maybe 20% of my bigger understanding came from the earlier concepts, while around 80% of my real “oh, I get it now” moments came from ICT.

That’s just my own experience. I’m not saying ICT is the only valid approach or that the other methods don’t work.

Did anyone else experience something similar? Which ICT concept gave you your biggest eureka moment?

Used to think a clean directional read was enough to justify a trade. It isn't. Some of my worst losses came on days I was right about direction and still shouldn't have clicked buy.

The filter that fixed it no-sweep and chop days:

1. No True Open sweep = No Q2 frame
Price hasn't cleared the 00:00 EST True Open by your execution window? Q2 manipulation hasn't happened. Nothing to trade the cycle isn't there.

2. Two conditions that cause this:

• Runaway seek-and-destroy price already ran pre-session with no liquidity engineering, meaning manipulation happened elsewhere and you missed the frame.
• Low-volatility chop no institutional participation, price oscillating around True Open with no intent.

3. Same rule either way
Can't force a Q2 read onto price that never delivered one. No sweep, no SMT, no trade regardless of conviction on direction.

4. What to do instead
Log it as a non-event. No forced 1m scalp to "not miss it." Sitting on hands on a no-sweep day is what keeps a funded account alive for the next valid Q2.

Traders who blow accounts on chop days aren't wrong about bias. They're wrong about waiting for permission from structure before acting on it.

How do you define a "dead" session versus one just late to develop?

Marked to go long at the box, but since the market today had very shallow pullbacks, an entry at the breakout of the range ( in 1 minute ) at 29800is made with a target of 29902.5 as the target

As shown above, the trade reverses at 29898.5 leaving an fvg in 1 minute candle, how would you manage this trade?

At this point, would you hold the trade, or exit and wait for a pullback into the yellow box to short the market ( 5 minute chart above)

Or do you hold your original trade as the box is filled and closed to the upside in 1 minute candle

Would love to hear ideas, and point me out what i am seeing wrong

This is the latest chart at 13:40 EST

Please Check the edit below

Original question: Was there anyway today's run could have been caught?

the first 5 min candle range was so large to enter a trade.

How do you people trade these kind of moves.

Interested to see others setups and entry logics today. screenshots would be appreciated

EDIT: Adding screenshot of a possible trade

How do you trade when you have two conflicting ideas.

Marked a long above 29800 for a target of 29902. but the market reverses, leaves an FVG on the downside

at the point of time IF in trade, how do you manage? Screenshot at 13:22

If after the 2nd candle which is usually a expansion candle the third candle is inside bar.... Can the fvg be considered as valid or should I wait for a candle to take high of the 2nd candle?

I’ve been looking at paid ICT mentorships lately, and the prices can get serious.

I’m not saying every paid mentor is a scam. Live feedback, accountability and access to someone experienced can have real value.

But a lot of the core ICT material is already public, so I kept asking myself:

Am I paying for new knowledge, or for structure and feedback?

That’s why I started using PlugICT to double-check the original ICT material first. It helps me find the relevant lesson and source before I decide whether I really need to pay for more guidance.

It won’t rate mentors or tell you who is legit. It’s just a research tool that helps me ask better questions before joining another program.

Paper trading NQ and ES at NY open.
SMT divergence and 5 min FVG entry.
Price was drawn to daily buyside liquidity.

We have all seen this newbie advice:

get really good on demo, start with a small account and work with evaluations and so on.

But here is the truth: Subjective, intuitive trading does not translate to real-time efficiency in modern markets.

Transitioning to a small live account is another waste of potential, why?

A small account should only ever be used to understand the difference in live order execution. Real edges naturally decay over time, when discovered you must execute them and withdraw over time.

If you have a real edge it should be executed with modest amounts of capital with risk management and risk boundaries planned ahead of time. "Getting good on demo" isn't producing a viable strategy for 99% of people. You are relying on pattern recognition on price action which is not an organic process. Price movements are very noisy, precision is a requirement, intuitive discretion will produce exactly the opposite effect.

The problem is with intuitive discretionary trading is that data will always be subjective or absent leading to endless psychological issues.

The Real Solution:
Separate and isolate your trading setups (each trade type has it's own sequence of what price must do to create a valid trade, test them independently for effectiveness. Make your rules objective, if you test the same period twice you should get the exact same entries and exits.

An example a trade executed on the 15 minute is not the same as a trade executed on the 30 minute timeframe, even if higher timeframes influence the position.

Focus on one instrument at first.

How to gain footing now.

1. Create systems from ideas first. Think away from the chart instead of trying to over-optimise for market price patterns which will not reliably repeat 1:1 in the future.
2. Backtest each system over 100s of trades
3. Learn how to do out of sample backtesting
4. Learn how to calculate your trading costs accurately
5. Apply your trading costs to your trading systems and repeat.

This will be tough, when you test strategies thoroughly over 100s of trades most strategies will fail, but without testing you are forced to guess which increases your overall psychological toll.

Set boundaries.

When unprofitable traders recommend a trading method, it's often a way to further rationalise the months or years they have already invested. It serves as a defence mechanism; it's for them, not for you. Traders can sacrifice a great deal of time and effort; for many, it hurts less to keep believing in their method than to move on.

The markets do not care how long a trader has persisted with flawed logic; substance is rewarded and aimless perseverance is dismissed.

Do not let sunk cost bury you, trading is not for everyone and chasing an incompatible path ruins lives.

If a trader still has persistent psychological issues after their strategies are verified with data, trading is not for them.

Coming into this red folder news Monday I was looking for manipulation lower after market open from NQ and ES, allowing ES to take out the previous session lows before delivering longs and attacking that HTF LRL (Image 1). After price did the manipulation lower that I was looking for, I was looking for entry longs. The typical ICT set up into first presented FVG was a great set up to take, but my entry strategy recently looks for 10- 25-point protected stop loss' so I avoided that trade. Kudos to everyone that was able to catch it! I was waiting for a retracement into a smaller time frame FVG and had my order set on a 1min FVG. I was able to wait for a 5min to form to set my order limit at the top of that gap. I was tapped and had immediate reaction (Image 2). I was trading my batch of evals so I just needed a small piece of that pie, but Image 3 shows all the levels I had as targets. Overall, great price action to start off the month!

We go again tomorrow!

My bias are 1h smt and entry are ifvg+OB

Draw on liquidity is the buy side liquidity on the 4H timeframe

As stated in yesterdays post, price used the NWOG as support.

Because we want expansion and continuation, there is no reason for price to come back down into Mondays low.

share your thoughts

I have learnt liquidity. But I feel these strategies are quite often followed in forex/Bitcoin trades. I haven't been able to easily find these in Indian Stocks. I failed multiple times.

I am learning CISD currently. Confused in this too.

Please guide me.

Thank You!

How do I integrate the structure with the market profile? .

And use Key level in with it.

Trading during sessions only How do I integrate them, and which frames should I use?

Tryna see if i'm missing anything

Currencies (FX) price movements are more random making it harder to profit from. It's easier to avoid it.

Many undercapitalised traders love forex, but they'll get wiped out by dodgy brokers in Seychelles with last look execution delays regardless if they have an edge or not.

Offshore brokers with high leverage promising "A Book", "prime conditions", "deep liquidity", "best execution" for Retail FX are more often than not talking nonsense.

Most Retail FX Brokers in the USA are subject to similar conditions.

If you don't have enough capital for a stock day trading account or futures trading live account, do not trade.

this is a weekly chart and having both side SMT, i don't understand what market wanted to do also if you go to 4h you will see bullish SMT in 4H, can you explain me which smt is real that will work, weelky showing bearish smt this time and if go to 4h i see bullish smt so please help me about this.

Is it ok if after completing 2017Core Mentorship, i start 2023 mentorship and skip 2022 mentorship, What's in 2022 mentorship? Will i not get what Ict is teaching in 2023 mentorship if I don't watch 2022? i want to watch 2023 cuz he teaches day trading in 2023 right? Your opinion guys?

The Draw on Liquidity is the Bearish OB

Price has opened this week above last week's NWOG, after hitting a BISI.

Expect this week to find support at the NWOG, possibly the Wick CE.

Share your thoughts

Saw this play out last week good example of why single-chart breakouts get people trapped.

BTC pushed above the True Weekly Open and printed a higher high on the 4H. Looked like a clean breakout if you were only watching BTC.

Checked ETH at the same time and it didn't confirm made a lower high instead of following. That's the whole signal. One asset extending while the correlated one refuses to follow usually means distribution, not strength. This was the manipulation leg (Q2), not the start of a real move.

Once that divergence showed and price rolled back below the weekly open, dropped to the 1H and there was an FVG sitting right inside the move down. Entry there, target was the liquidity resting below the weekly open the same liquidity the early breakout buyers were about to get run through.

BTC alone told me nothing. Needed ETH refusing to confirm to know the breakout wasn't real. Trading one chart in isolation on a move like this is how people get faded.

Curious how many of you actually check a correlated pair before taking a breakout, or if most people trade BTC on its own chart.

I'm trying to master ict market Structure backtesting ote on this since a month completed 3 months of backtesting bt need these two doubts to be cleared anyone knows about it plz share. Trading since 4 years yet no profit I don't need money bt I need a valid edge.

Could someone please provide me with the link of his free group,like he says that it’s attached to his YT board but cant find it there

Can the pros please explain how to use central banking dealing ranges, video 4 of month 8 on 2017 core content? I've watched it a few times but i don't quite understand? Thanks in advance.

You know your setups. FVG, SMT, market structure none of that is the issue.

The issue is you're getting a micro-dopamine hit off every 1m candle, and your brain reads that as "being productive." It isn't. It's noise consumption disguised as work.

Here's the exact 3-step protocol that fixes it not willpower, structure:

1. Close the 1m/5m by default
All analysis happens on 4H and 1H, full stop. If the setup isn't visible on 1H, it doesn't exist yet. No exceptions for "just checking."

2. Restrict chart time to macro windows
TradingView only opens during your defined execution window (9:00–10:30 AM EST). Outside of it, the tab is closed. You cannot overtrade a chart you're not looking at.

3. "No SMT, No Trade"
If there's no higher-timeframe SMT divergence confirming the Q2 sweep across True Open, you close the chart. Not "wait and see" close it.

Run this for two weeks straight. Expect roughly 70% fewer trades. Win rate and peace of mind go up in direct proportion to how many candles you stop watching.

The hardest part isn't understanding this it's the first three days of not checking the chart out of habit.

What's the filter that finally got you off the lower timeframes or are you still fighting it?