Trading Concepts

The backbone of how I read price. ICT concepts cover order blocks, fair value gaps, liquidity pools, breaker blocks, and kill zones. The core idea: banks and institutions need liquidity to fill large orders. They create the conditions — the hunts, the sweeps, the displacement — that retail traders misread as random. Understanding this changes everything about how you see a chart.

The AMD cycle: Accumulation, Manipulation, Distribution. Market makers engineer liquidity runs to accumulate positions, then deliver price in the opposite direction. Recognising which phase the market is in keeps you on the right side of the move instead of being the liquidity that gets hunted.

Gann's insight was that time is as important as price — markets repeat in time as they do in price. His work on the Square of 9, seasonal tendencies, and geometric time cycles gives a framework for anticipating when turning points are likely. I use this as the foundation for my time-first approach. Price goes where it wants — but it tends to do it when Gann said it would.

Standard deviation expansions from an established range. Once you have the opening range or initial balance, STDV gives you statistically probable target zones — the 1σ, 2σ, and 2.5σ levels where price has historically accepted or rejected. Not guarantees, but high-probability areas to watch for reaction.

Time Price Opportunity charts reframe the market as an auction process rather than a line. The Point of Control (POC) shows where the most time was spent — the fairest price. The Value Area shows the range of acceptance. When price leaves value fast, it's either trending or returning. Learning to read TPO removes the noise and shows you what the market is actually doing.

Volume at price within a specific selected window. High volume nodes (HVN) are zones of agreement — price tends to stall and consolidate here. Low volume nodes (LVN) are fast-moving zones — price cuts through them. Overlaying FRVP on key ranges gives you real institutional footprints, not just candlestick patterns.

The first 15–30 minutes of a session set the tone for the day. A clean break and hold above or below the opening range signals directional conviction. A return into the range suggests balance and chop. The NY AM opening range in particular is one of the most reliable structures I use — it defines the initial balance that STDV projections then build from.

There are specific windows when institutional activity peaks: London Open (3–5 AM EST), NY Open (9–10 AM EST), and NY PM (1–3 PM EST). These are the times when real moves are created, not 11 AM retail chop. Knowing where you are in the session clock is non-negotiable for time-based trading.

The foundation of reading direction. Higher highs and higher lows = uptrend. Lower highs and lower lows = downtrend. A Break of Structure (BOS) confirms continuation. A Change of Character (ChoCH) signals a potential reversal. I use swing structure to frame the environment before any other tool. Everything else is context inside the structure.