This document is the Summary of ICT 2022 Mentorship.
Not only the basic ideas from ICT are included, most of the
screencaps are with my personal understanding.
You can take this as the table of content.
If you find something interesting and you want to take a deeper look, you still
need to watch the original youtube video.
For those skipped episodes, I think you will not be interested in watching as
well.
This is my second time watching the whole series, so some of the knowledge
“may be” too complicated if you are totally new to ICT/SMC.
If this is your case, then watch all my lectures first.
In finishing this, I took a whole week re-watch something I already did long
time ago.
Please respect my hardwork and DO NOT LEAK THIS OUT.
Wish you have a more complete understanding of trading Forex.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year :)
Ep.2 Introducing the Framework of Price Delivery System (PD Array)
- in a bigger timeframe (e.g. weekly, daily), we would like to guess if the next candle go
higher or lower, but not predicting where the candle will close
- think about where the price will be drawn to, that’s experience (so you have to
study more yourself) not real rocket science knowledge
- do not trade every single day
- the market is either going to hunt liquidity (e.g. buy stops, sell stops), or it corrects
the imbalance (FVG)
- institutional traders always look for old high and old low
- smart money sell when retails buy
- always anticipate for a stop-hunt
- if you are trading intraday, you want to drop down to lower timeframe if you find
something interesting in higher timeframe
-
- PD Array: there is an Algo controlling the price movements, every move can be
explained
Ep.3 Simple Logic behind Multiple Timeframe Analysis and LG Reversal
- high frequency trading algo can target even second-base timeframe, so basically
SMC can apply into all timeframe
- you anticipate a market structure shift, not forcing it
- Order Block is an area, it can be inside the FVG
-
- This system is trade after the market showed its hands, no guess, no overthink
- When price delivery getting massive (spike/ huge candle), this is not a sign of buying,
just the algo creating more imbalance, attracting people market order buy then eat
the slippage
- slippage is also a liquidity, it makes people suffer and lose more
- Order Block is the Change in the State of Delivery, it is meaningful with FVG,
BOS/ChoCh
- ICT does not trade after the noon of NA session, which is 12/1am in HK, setups are
disgusting usually
Ep.4 Intraday Range Liquidity
- Once a range is formed, plot the Equilibrium
- Typical LG reversal example
-
- One more point to add is that you have to do it in the Premium Zone
- Also you have to break the market structure before you use this setup
-
Ep.6 Internalize Price Delivery
- do not trade patterns, indicators, momentum etc.
- the major stuff in ICT is Liquidity: when retails buy, we sell
- optimal FVG is after the LG
-
- market structure shift is better if it goes fast instead of gentle (strong structure
concept)
- ICT prefers absolute displacement
-
- Meaningful Move: impulsive move with FVG, BOS/ChoCh, Enter in FVG
- If no opportunity in Higher TimeFrame, switch to a lower one
-
-
- BOS is important in LG reversal
-
-
Ep.7 Introduction of Daily Bias
-
- daily bias =/= the only direction you cantrade
- you can trade against the daily bias but only less size
- you do not have to be right every time, you just need to trade according to intraday
setup and manage the position well
- daily bias gives you the edge of better size management, of cuz some more
edge
- ICT said that he always does not trade perfectly, so do not treat Daily bias as a
holy grail
- no matter you trading with or without daily bias, try not to overstay your welcome; you
can take a trending trade with daily bias but if you see any liquidity pool gets cleared
out you still need to get out
-
Ep.8 Nature of Forex
- usually efficient, price moves without FVG
- both bullish and bearish market structure can happen at the same time, like a combo
trap
- need to be much more careful to identify real opportunity
- using market structure comparison, daily bias
- due to its corrective and efficient nature, do not overstay the welcome
Ep.10 Some More on Daily Bias
-
- Power of 3: accumulation, manipulation, distribution
- If you Daily Bias is short, any price actions above the open is accumulation, then
there will be some liquidity hunt by the market makers, this is the manipulation, then
the price drops, this is distribution
-
Ep.12 Details of Analyzing Market Structure and Precision Entry
- Consolidation in smaller time frame usually happens in a bigger timeframe FVG
-
-
- always ask what is the market narrative going to tell you, the answer is to study
the relationship between each swing high and swing low
- everytime, the market tries to rebalance the imbalance
- if the swing high/ swing low is the last fill of the imbalance, we call it intermediate
high/low; if the swing high/swing low is just a random move or rebalancing a short
term imbalance, that’s just a short-term high/low
-
- ITH always lies within two STH, same as the low: now we can easily anticipate what
will be the next swing high/low
-
- if STH1 > ITH > STH2 in a triangle pattern, the price will go down more often
-
- you do not have to enter after the swing low gets broken, you can simply anticipate
because ICT is a language close to the price delivery algo
-
Ep.13 Timings in the Market Structure
- ICT mentioned that if there are some fundamental threats, try not to risk
- examples are like Ukraine War, High Impact News, WTO Decisions etc.
- be aware of the “fake move” 30mins before the session open
Ep.15 Live Trading Example
- be careful that your trading entries follow intraday Premium and Discount
Ep.16 Multiple Setups in a Trading Session
- Define Daily Bias, follow the rule of Power of Three, respect the session opening
price
-
- wait for the initial move and then confirm your bias
- you do not need to entry perfectly, if you missed the short entries, wait for another
session, and find another good trading setup
-
- there are tons of opportunities intraday, the only three things: imbalance, time of
day and liquidity pool
- the major problem is the spread you may encounter
Ep.17 More on Multiple Setups in one Session
- Train yourself to see it, find unfinished job that the algo has not yet done
- your execution can be filled out of the Killzone, but your decision is made during
the killzone (high volume trading period concept)
-
- In Forex, different trading session’s opening price is sort of important
- the open price is the core thing in the Power of Three setup
Ep.18 Correct Mindset in Trading
- do not enter a brand new position in your phone
- you can manage the trade on your phone but you can hardly see the full picture in
a mobile phone so DO NOT enter trade in your phone
- Gold and Commodities are event-driven market → fundamental play
- never think of how you can make the most profit, think about are you entering in the
right timing on a right direction
-
Ep.19 Something Bad with Forex Trading, more notes on Daily Bias
- do not try to pick the long-term top and bottom, you can do whatever you want with a
ITH/ITL and STH/STL
-
- Daily Bias in Forex is not really that Clear (that’s why I invented the Daily pivot vs
Weekly pivot method)
-
- We need to find meaningful move and related area (OB/FVG) in order to secure
a better entry, you cannot really enter with just one evidence
-
- you have to understand when not to trade
-
- ICT promotes using less size to double your account instead of maximizing size
to over-leverage doubling accounts
- If the price hit the Daily Equilibrium, we can expect a bounce next day
-
Ep.20 SMC vs Retail Technical Analysis
- what retails see as resistance, SMC need to notice if the market is efficient
-
- important to compare different markets when trading Forex
- for example, if DXY hit the support/ bullish OB, EURUSD has a higher probability to
false breakout
-
Ep.21 Risk on vs Risk off Market
-
- ICT’s trades holding time is ard 45mins-2hrs
- New York Killzone: 830-11
-
- you will not want to participate when the market is deadly silent
- try not to predict the market as you will feel like a loser, most of the time
- do not time the market, react to it, follow the setup
Ep.22 Details about Trading System
- The very first thing to do every day: understand why the market did this and where it
is likely to go soon, any unfinished job?
- Market Structure = the narrative: where the market is gonna go, the algo will
always follow what the narrative said
- SMC will not fail because this requires extremely disciplined and well-organized
structure to trade
-
Ep.24 Where do Setups form
- you want to see displacement: the setup that kill both longs and shorts, grabbing the
most liquidity that the algo can
-
- you draw a old FVG and then wait for a displacement happened, enter at the new
FVG, and this is the language of the market Algo
-
Ep.25 Trade Review
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- who is doing the LQ → smart money, those institutional traders
- when they successfully push the price lower, they have to think about how to exit the
net-short position
- so they hunt for liquidity at the demand, forcing stop-loss order buyback their net
short position
- Using the previous day high/low as the Liquidity Pool, follow the Daily Bias and act
after displacement
-
- if you are bearish, you want to see the high get cleared out first before the low
gets taken
-
- We draw Fib. to find Premium and Discount (or GZ) on the meaningful move
-
Ep. 28 & 29 Live Trading, Trading Day before high impact news
- if the news is really high impact like Powell speaking, the day before can be quiet
as well, because the volatility need to be saved
- the London Session and early New York session tend to be quiet
- the volatility need to be saved for the crazy move coming
- in the ambiguous day, we do not anticipate a FVG bounce or reject
- we follow the Daily Bias and wait for the FVG getting filled first, then enter once the
price get out of the FVG
Ep.30 Bigger Picture mindset
Ep.31 Scout Sniper Mindset
-
Ep.32 ICT is flexible
- ICT does not only stick to one model
- everything in ICT is a separate part that you can combine each part to form your
own setup
-
- There are many reasons for us to start a trade
- for retails, S&R, D&S, tape reading etc.
- for SMC, we hunt for liquidity, so everytime we have to ask ourselves, is one side of
liquidity getting hunted already?
- and what time frame are you trading? If you can reason your entries, you will
improve by trail and errors and finally, find your setups
-
Ep.34 Dealing with Gaps and more Emphasis on meaningful moves
- usually there is opening gap during monday or after high impact news day
- this is a dynamic level that can act as a S/R level
- do not establish a co-dependency between you and your mentors, that would not
help you learn, the only thing that helps improve is do your own homework and
research
-
- Identifying meaningful move is important
- if the move is meaningful, you can do whatever you want to get profit
-
Ep.35 More on Using Gap High/Low
-
- Once you find your idea is correct, you can try to measure how far it can go
- Of course it requires some luck as there are so little times we can get a magically
crazy moves to an likely impossible target
Ep.36 Trade Review
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Ep.37 Feel the Market
- stay away from the market by the New York session on Wed
- we have no edge before the high impact news or highly volatile market
- if you have advantage in one time zone or market, why risking yourself in one
scenario with built-in disadvantage, which is trading before high impact news
Ep.38 Bias, Profit Target
- do not worry about others’ ideas, what’s happening next is not important
- you do not have to aim for a crazy 1:100RR profit target but you need to know
when to take off from the high or skip the double top pattern for a more
profitable trade
-
Ep.39 Logic behind the Price and Time → Price Delivery Algo language
- guessing what’s the market unfinished job after finishing one
-
- using Intraday Action as a confirmation, this is part of the narrative, so if
something happened (even you didn't trade it), you can still predict what’s the next
move
-
- (you can open the smaller timeframe to see more details on manipulation part)
- Price level is useless unless time is considered, so trading only S&R is fallacy
- With liquidity concept, you can pick the right level consistently
- Time is useless unless the price is attracting the algo and at the key delivery
zone, that’s the logic of discount and premium, buy low and sell high, not momentum,
not indicators
- Without knowing the liquidity, if you cannot understand the PD array language, you
are following something that is designed to fail, which are the indicators, S&R, etc.
- do not trade just a false-breakout or a false-breakdown
- this randomness can hurt
-
- if you feel to give up, this is the time you need to take a break
- in the chart above, if you take no trade you are a disciplined trader because, the
opportunities are not perfect
- of course sometimes over-refining can hurt the performance as well
Ep.40 Key to Daily Bias
-
- Daily Bias is the most-requested topic to be done but DB is never a ABC-type
knowledge
- There are many ways to determine Daily Bias and you have to find your own
- You can use simple S&R to plan, you can use SMC to predict, you can use
indicators, it will not really harm your trading performance but only the frequency of
trading
- The events are catalysts moving the market, so you have to expect sometimes it
really did zero move
- Plan your Trade and Trade your Plan: DB → Session → Power of Three/OB/FVG
(use whatever setup you want) → avoid trading high impact news → figure out the
range after the events → re-plan and see which side of liquidity have been hunted
out
-
Ep.41 Trading Tips
- Taking partials is better than moving your stop loss, you want the trade to work out
instead of giving up a chance with playing safe
-
- Paying attention to if the market is still bullish or bearish is way more important in
managing your winning trades
-
- it take over six months to really taste what’s the market narrative
- however, in this six months, you do not have to trade every day but do more
observation
