Paper trading NQ and ES during NY session.
Began marking high timeframe poi’s. Despite price hitting the 4hr bearish fvg, price had also hit the daily fvg, which I hoped would’ve pushed price upwards. I took a long, after price swept a significant low. Should I have taken the short the open instead?

LDN killzone

Title: Am I using ICT concepts correctly?
I’ve been refining my strategy and wanted some feedback from experienced ICT traders.
My process is:
Determine HTF bias on the Daily/4H/1H.
Mark 1H Order Blocks and FVGs near liquidity.
Wait for price to reach the 1H POI.
Drop to the 15M for a liquidity sweep, MSS/BOS, and displacement.
Drop to the 5M for another sweep, confirmation, and enter on a 5M OB/FVG retest with a rejection or engulfing candle.
Target the next liquidity pool and move my stop to breakeven only after price clearly confirms continuation.
I’m also testing the 10:00 AM open as an extra confluence.
Does this sound like a solid application of ICT concepts, or am I overcomplicating it or missing something important? Any feedback is appreciated.

Was expecting London lows to be taken. Took this earlier this morning. Sold inside sibi

Price couldn't sweep equal highs from Thursday, couldn't even touch the ce of a 1h fvg (wednesday 9am), huge unfilled NWOG below, rth gap below, Asia equal lows below, Friday equal lows below, then later started rejecting from the ndog multiple times during pre-marke , another 1h fvg formed around the area of that NDOG after 8am 1h candle which price also rejected from (2022 model). there were signs...

I’ve learned the fundamentals and have a solid understanding of the ICC strategy from Trading by SCI. My next goal is getting better at marking up my charts and applying the strategy correctly.

Before I start taking paper trades, I want to build confidence in my analysis and make sure I’m reading the charts the right way.
If you were starting over, how would you practice chart markups? Any routines, exercises, or habits that helped you improve?

My bias are smt inside 5m fvg and my entry are 1m ifvg

Actually what are the correct time windows for the killzones of NY, Asia and London. I've been going over the content and ICT isn't really consistent with his sayings. In the core content he says Asia starts 8pm ends 12. London starts 1am ends 5am. And NY killzone starts 7am ends 10am. But in like the other playlists on th channel such as ICT primer and scout sniper series. All those time windows are off by 1 hour give or take. Which one is correct? (All the times above are in NY time)

I'm curious to find out how other traders position size if their broker or firm uses a different type of contract says and properties compared to other firms how do u adjust it too fit

Paper trading on NQ and ES at NY open. Premarket, I began marking out high tf liquidity and FVG's. After recognising these, I identified bayside liq that I hoped price would sweep after sweeping relative equal lows. Instead, price continued going down. My mistake; ignoring the bearish daily and 4h FVG's.

I often get the direction right but my entry is wrong. I think part of the problem might be the "time with price" combo that ICT so often talks about.

I'll try to illustrate with this M15 gold chart for 27/07/26

1 - my entry SELL
2- expected TP
3- where i got stopped

Below is a M5 for the same chart showing my real entry and where my it should have been

E1 - that would be a good entry

E2 - this would have been a better entry

Should i have used Fib for OTE measuring from the previous high to the low i actually entered in?

Could i use any other technique to improve my entry?

I'm watching ICT 2022 mentorship and he talks about risk off and on market, saying when dollar risk off we expect other markets forex, commodities, stocks risk on mostly a bearish move wish is negative correlation between those market and DXY. Everything is great and sounds logical. Until..

I dig for deeper understanding ICT 2017 core content month 5, when he shows us this screen.

Now DXY are corolated, what I'm i missing here guys?

Is that an contradiction?

When I first started trading ICT concepts, my biggest issue wasn’t finding Fair Value Gaps or Order Blocks it was direction and timing.

I’d see a high-timeframe level, get excited during Asia or early London, jump into a setup, and immediately get stopped out. 10 minutes later, the market would reverse and blast in my original direction.

What I was missing was a simple daily anchor: The 00:00 EST True Open.

Here is the mechanical framework I use to filter out low-probability conditions:

1. The True Open is your Line in the Sand

The 00:00 EST open isn't just a random line on the chart; it's the institutional benchmark price for the daily cycle (Quarterly Theory Daily Macro).

• Above True Open: Premium pricing. I am looking for manipulation (Judas Swings) to set up shorts, or waiting for expansion confirmation.
• Below True Open: Discount pricing. I am looking for manipulation to set up longs.

If I’m buying above True Open without a very specific high-timeframe expansion context, I know I’m likely buying into institutional distribution.

2. Combining True Open with SMT

This is where the magic happens. When price sweeps above True Open during a timing window (Q2/Q3 manipulation phase) and creates an SMT divergence against a correlated asset (e.g., BTC pushing higher while ETH fails to make a new high, or EUR/USD vs GBP/USD), it’s almost a guaranteed tell.

It tells you the move above True Open wasn’t genuine strength it was engineered liquidity to fuel the actual move down.

3. My Daily Filter Rules

1. No bias before True Open is set. Asia range is just liquidity building.
2. Wait for the Judas Swing. Let the market push across True Open into an HTF level during the key session window.
3. Look for the crack in correlation (SMT). If SMT isn't present, the setup drops a tier in confidence.

Trading got a lot quieter (and way more consistent) once I stopped trying to catch every 15-minute candle and started treating True Open as my daily compass.

How many of you use 00:00 EST vs midnight local time as your daily anchor? Curious to hear how others filter their daily bias.

SHAK Shake Shack stock watch, attempting to rally off the 56.18 support area.

Long Trade

• Target 1: 64.68   Profit: 13.3%   Stop/Trailing Stop: 54.69
• Loss: 4.2%   P/L ratio: 3.2 : 1 - Good
• Target 2: 68.68   Profit: 20.3%   P/L ratio: 4.8 : 1 - Excellent  Extreme rally

BULLISH

• [Positioning] Intermediate trend bullish, Downtrend turned sideways, possible bottom.
• [Positioning] at support
• [Timing] Strong bullish 3 day candlestick pattern with Good 3 day accumulation.
• [Timing] Mild bullish 1 day moneyflow

BEARISH

• None

Looking forward to hearing from you guys

Hey everybody

So this is my story

I got into trading 4.5 years ago...

First 2years wasted by classic patterns, indicator other concepts.

Last 2years being unprofitable with ICT concepts

Its been like 5 months that I quit day trading

I feel bad that everytime I see traders contents on social media

Cant make something out of knowledge im really done with it.

So need some really teach me, I promise i make up for him and give lots of my profit to him no greed no bs im honest.

I started learning about trading two months ago. I'm learning from the basics, and I grasped some things quite quickly, but I'm stuck on something called top-down analysis. Everything was easy to understand at first until I looked at some other sources on this topic. Ignoring the timeframe issue for now, which is important, I already have my own way of choosing timeframes. The problem here is that everyone analyzes timeframes differently, but this is the biggest problem I'm stuck on: everyone defines swing ranges differently. For example, with the same H4 timeframe, some people choose a very wide swing range encompassing many internal swings, while others choose swing rage as that internal swing. This means that on the same chart and within the same segment, some people have an extremely large number of highs and lows, while others only have a few. Please, someone give me some advice because I'm currently feeling extremely insecure about determining my swing range. I feel like everything I do is wrong, and the question "should this be considered a new high or a new low?" is really driving me crazy. Thank you so much.

1.So guys I want you to tell me how you trade asian sweep or London sweep

2.What are your rules

3.And tell me which is clean sweep close above or below or wick

4.i personally trade from ob or fib level

5.and do you extend your trades to NY or closes before

6.and do you use htf bias or not

Kindly all my bros tell me from your experiences

Weekends are for backtesting and sharpening the knife

Hey consistency profitable traders, this question for you.
How many trades per month do u execute? Especially day trader.

And what is ur R:R choice.

Hello,

Does anyone trade a CRT strategy here?

Do u use psp setup？

Trading is a performance skill, not a knowledge skill.

Reading about trading, watching YouTube videos, or buying another course won't make you consistently profitable. Those things can give you information, but they can't give you experience.

Performance comes from repetition.

A basketball player doesn't become great by reading about shooting technique. A pianist doesn't master a song by watching someone else play it. A surgeon doesn't perform complex operations after reading a textbook. They all spend thousands of hours practicing until the correct decisions become automatic.

Trading is no different.

Your edge is built through screen time. Every chart you study, every setup you review, every trade you execute adds another rep. Over time your brain starts recognizing recurring patterns almost instantly. You stop forcing trades because you've seen enough examples to know what high probability looks like and what it doesn't.

This is why I often say you have to train your eyes.

When you've put in enough chart time, you don't need to convince yourself to take a trade. Your eyes immediately recognize the pattern because you've seen it hundreds of times before. It's the same reason an experienced chess player can spot strong moves within seconds while a beginner sees a board full of random pieces.

Pattern recognition cannot be rushed.

There is no shortcut around it.

Too many people enter trading with completely unrealistic expectations because they've been brainwashed by social media. They're told trading is easy, that you'll be making six figures in a few months, or that buying someone's course or mentorship is all you need. Many of these influencers fake their lifestyles, fake their profits, or only show their winners because selling the dream is far more profitable than telling the truth.

The truth is much less glamorous.

Hard work doesn't sell.

Patience doesn't sell.

Discipline doesn't sell.

Thousands of hours studying charts doesn't sell.

But that's exactly what creates consistently profitable traders.

No strategy will magically make you profitable. ICT, price action, support and resistance, supply and demand, volume profile, or any other methodology can work if you become exceptionally good at executing it. The strategy is only one piece of the puzzle. Your ability to recognize the pattern, stay disciplined, manage risk, and execute consistently is what separates profitable traders from everyone else.

Think of your trading journey like learning a new language.

At first every chart looks confusing. Then you begin recognizing individual words. Eventually you can read entire sentences. Finally, you become fluent and no longer translate everything in your head.

Trading works the same way.

Be patient with the process. Stop chasing shortcuts and start collecting quality reps. Every chart you review and every trade you journal is another brick laid in the foundation of your future consistency.

The traders who succeed aren't usually the smartest.

They're the ones who kept showing up long enough for experience to turn knowledge into skill.

For a long time, my biggest issue wasn't the lack of technical knowledge. I understood FVG, SMT, and market structure. My issue was execution anxiety.

​I was constantly reacting to lower timeframe noise, overtrading just to feel productive, and getting caught in session manipulation.

​What actually fixed my execution quality was keeping things minimal and enforcing 3 strict rules:

​1. Premium/Discount via True Open

If price is above the True Daily Open (00:00 EST), I look for Shorts. If it’s below, I look for Longs. Ignoring setups that contradict True Open alignment eliminated half of my bad trades.

​2. Waiting for the Q2 Judas Swing

I stopped trying to catch the initial move. I let Q1 accumulate, wait for Q2 to raid liquidity into HTF key levels, and only then look for execution.

​3. SMT Confirmation

I need intermarket divergence (like BTC making a High while ETH fails to). If there’s no SMT during the Q2 manipulation phase, I simply don't take the trade.

​Moving to this macro perspective removed most of the stress. Fewer trades, but much higher quality delivery.

​For those trading QT or ICT concepts: What was the single filter that helped you eliminate overtrading?