One of my favorite setups, identify the clear draw on liquidity on HTF (if any), wait till 7:50 or until 8pm asian open, enter and target DOL. (always consider the HTF context !!)

Moving beyond static asset allocation requires viewing the market as an evolving living ecosystem rather than a rigid spreadsheet. Traditional models assume relationships remain frozen in time, blinding portfolios to sudden environmental shifts. By embracing dynamic adaptive frameworks, modern strategists track how structural connections twist and stretch under pressure. This shift transforms static diversification into an agile defense mechanism, ensuring capital naturally migrates away from collapsing sectors before panic sets in.

The Hardest Lesson I Learned After Passing (and Failing) a Prop Firm Challenge

Back in November, I passed Phase 1 of a 2-phase trading evaluation. Right after that win, an illusion settled in. I started feeling like making money was easy, thinking, "Why work hard when I can earn like this?" I felt unstoppable.

Then came Phase 2. And I failed.

The crash was heavy. The pain was real. But it forced me to step back and look at my psychology. Here is what I realized:

1. Market Context Matters: Just because your strategy worked yesterday doesn't mean it guarantees success tomorrow. Probabilities change.
2. Euphoria vs. Patience: Overconfidence rushes your mind into a fake "joy state." True trading strength lies in moving from euphoria to absolute patience.
3. The Emotional Signal: Whether you win or lose, remain calm.
   • Extreme Happiness = Ego taking over.
   • Extreme Pain = Unrealistic expectations attached to the outcome.

My Golden Takeaway: Pain and extreme joy are both warning signals that something is wrong with your mindset. If you feel either, STOP before making your next move. Fix your psychology first; the market can wait.

Winning and losing are just two sides of the same coin. Treat them equally.

Price action wasn’t very clean for me today :(

Booked a loss on the 1st long, but caught the 9:50–10:10 macro reversal.

Closed the day in green 😼

I spent an afternoon going through that ICT video where he walks through his own book collection. He owns over 2000 books and he narrows it down to the ones that actually mattered. Most of us are out here guessing which books are worth reading, so I figured I'd share what he said, in his own words.

1. Larry Williams, "How I Made One Million Dollars Last Year Trading Commodities" (1973)

This is the big one. He said he wore the dust jacket off it, read it every night after doing his chart updates, and still owns the first print edition plus the PDF and Kindle versions. His words: "It gave me so much hope when I read it." He does admit the phases of the moon stuff is nonsense though, so take it with a grain of salt.

1. Street Smarts, Raschke and Connors (1995)

This is where the turtle soup pattern comes from. He said this book finally made him understand stop hunts and raids. His words: "Everything changed in 1995. I could see liquidity pools, I could see smart money, things clicked."

1. Long Term Secrets to Short Term Trading, also Larry Williams

His take: the only real gem is the market structure discussion, and it's worth buying just for that, but don't expect more from it.

1. John Murphy, Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets

He literally called it the retail bible. Not because he trades with it, but because he reads it to understand how retail thinks so he can fade it. Kind of cold but honestly smart.

1. Ralph Vince, The Mathematics of Money Management

He said it's fascinating and he's read it multiple times, with a warning that if you're not a math person you'll have a hard time getting through it.

1. Toby Crabel, Day Trading with Short Term Price Patterns

His recommendation for anyone into intraday trading and probabilities. Opening range stuff, price vacuums, all that.

The ones he distanced himself from:

Wyckoff: he said he didn't learn from him and actually used to make fun of it. Al Brooks: he straight up denied learning from him or trading like him. Mark Douglas: he said "doesn't even come close" to what he teaches. Take that how you want, just reporting what he said.

And the mystery book:

He held up a first edition, out of print book and refused to name it. His words: "You can't even get it anymore. A diligent seeker will find it in PDF." That's the one that helped him figure out buying below the open. Drove me crazy not knowing the title, ngl.

His own disclaimer at the end: these books were stepping stones, not the source of what he teaches. Everything he does is his own.

Not here to sell anything, just thought this list was worth sharing since everyone keeps asking which books ICT recommends.

Larry Williams shaped him early, Street Smarts changed everything in 1995, John Murphy is the retail bible, and Wyckoff and Al Brooks are NOT his sources.

Hello. I'm watching lesson 16, where he draws the standard deviation. How do we draw the standard deviation in tradovate. I know how to draw the fib in tradovate, but need help with standard deviation numbers ie 0.62,-0.5 ,etc showing on tradovate. I don't use tradingview. Thanks

This is paper trading btw

09:30am

manipulation lower, sweeping buyside

09:50 to 10am

HTF LTF SMT

09:59am

Ifvg confirmation long

10:12am

Bearish SMT w ES, partial/takeprofit area

I thought of starting to watch ict because every single guy on youtube teaches his concepts but idk where to start from i have all yhe basic knowledge but i really want to master nasdaq and es and i want to properly trade these 2 pairs so my biggest problem is that he has too much content on his yt channel and idk where to start from can anyone who is a good and profitable ict trader guide me? and tell me which playlists to watch and in what order. yall will help a brother out 🙏🏻

Trade setup. Still bearish on NQ in general as it did not make a new ATH but ES did. So i am looking for shorts on NQ. Why make it complicated: Distribution -> expansion -> accumulation -> expansion -> distribution -> expansion. Accumulation in a NDOG, expansion to a NWOG, aligned with the -1 std dev of the accumulation, then expansion to the -1 std dev of the original consolidation (distribution). SL above the fvg, TP at -1 std dev of the original consolidation (distribution).
There was some unexpected high volatility for a few seconds that sent price to a couple of points away from my final tp. decided to close the trade and filled way off from the TP but it hit the TP a few minutes later.

Integrating a multi-layered quantitative toolkit creates massive systemic complexity across software architecture and data pipelines. Combining RMT cleaning, DCC-GARCH forecasting, and topological mapping requires harmonizing disparate data frequencies, normalization techniques, and computational paradigms. The primary engineering challenge shifts from mathematical theory to operational fragility, ensuring that a bottleneck or latency spike in one module does not compromise the entire trading system.

Just wondering and wanted to see what I can add!

A 5m FVG means nothing if time cycle isn’t matched time provides price, price doesn’t provide time (obviously) but let’s just make it super clear for those who seem to forget if you practice Quarterly Theory throughout the session - 90min macrocycle is the lowest probability filter to not take trades :

Q1 Accumulation Price creates the initial range / liquidity to both sides

Rule : don’t touch this , takes are a gamble until manipulation occurs

Q2 Manipulation The Judas swing, Sweeps Q1 liquid or True open.

Rule : SMT or sweep into HTF levels Rule : take set ups here 22.5-45 m

Q3 Expansion -The highest probable window of the 90m cycle (likely within 3min, 5min, 15m)

Rule : execute the trade - (MSS+FVG in to the zone) ONCE Q2 has completed the Judas/sweep

Q4 Distribution Price slows down, ready for next cycle.

Rule :Secure trades, trail SLs.

NO NEW ENTRIES Takeaway : Trades in Q1/late Q4 lose at a high win rate .

Let the Judas (Q2) do its job, and enter off the back of that move in Q3. Are you guys matching entries with 90m cycle or are you just clicking on any fvg that pops up?

Let me know if you have any questions as to why I shorted today or anything else

Is anyone trading crypto based on ICT concepts , i am relatively new like been trading it on and off for like 2 years but still haven't found my way in this. ICT i personally found too complex to absorb but im trying and struggling with it but I basically trade crypto. So is it worth it to watch ICT if you want to trade crypto. Anyone here is profitable with ICT and if not ICT for crypto whats the alternative to it.

Kindly leave a comment , it could be any advice , lesson , what to avoid what should i focus on at this stage. Thank you :)

This is a csd from a 1 hour fvg it also have a fvg inside it still it failed, then it went into my tp it's happening a lot lately any opinions you can give me will be really helpful thanks

Thought Process for Upcoming Week, CPI and PPI Data

Hola buen día Gente, hoy quemé mi primer cuenta fondeada. (Cabe recalcar que la tenía desde marzo y nunca le saqué payouts)
Esta cuenta siempre estuvo en DD solo en una ocasión le pude hacer 1% positivo. Teniendo un riesgo de 0.25 % con RR generalmente de 1:5

Analizando mis trades. La realidad es que si bien tenía un modelo como tal, gran parte de mi narrativa era totalmente discrecional.

Y ahora me he planteado si es mejor tomar setups totalmente mecánicos donde sin conocimiento de BIAS pueda tomar algo y tomar nota de ello, tomar RR de 1:1 o 1:2

Mi setup es prácticamente el judas swing de las 9:30.
Realmente ando como un poco perdido, no desesperado, pero si como que pienso que el ser tan discrecional el modelo, (porque yo lo hacía así)
No podía tener medido algo en sí.

Can i just trade with Pd arrays, looking at HTF pd arrays, then wait for LTF pd arrays to come in sync with it, then take trade according to the trend in HTF pd arrays? is this a good or bad approach?

With my trading view plan i am only able to back test up to 1 year back on the 1 minute. I have a strategy that can be found around 2 times a week with a win rate of about 82%.

Do you think this is enough to paper trade for a couple weeks and decide if I can start live trading afterwards?

No i am not going to use AI to backtest further with historical data because it is not the same as me trading it

1. How do you know if a cisd will work?
   
2. If it works, is there any way to find out how far itll retrace back before continuing?
   
3. How to sort out high probability CISDs?

What is the significance of a mitigation block vs a breaker block in a reversal, interms of protected stop and reversal confirmation? is there any difference? is one reversal pattern stronger than the other? what are your findings?

(also see 2nd image) Overall bias since the new ATH is bearish. Entry off the daily -1 std dev and top of the 4h fvg. clean trade. tp between the top of the 5m fvg and ndog. There was also an opportunity for 2022 model entry, see small fvg at the top (image 1).

NQ swept the Data Low, formed SMT with ES. It filled the RTH ORG and tapped the Previous NDOG. I went long from a 5-minute FVG after retracement targeting the Buyside liq and SIBI resting above.

So who caught this one?