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ICT Liquidity & Killzones

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Intraday model: mark the session ranges and prior highs and lows, wait for a sweep in a killzone, then look for displacement and a fair-value gap.

Updated Sep 30, 2026 · intraday, liquidity, killzones, sessions

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What it is

An intraday framework built on liquidity and time. Sessions build ranges; the market often sweeps one side of a range during a high-activity window (a killzone), then moves toward the other side.

What to look for

  • Session ranges: the Asian range (roughly 20:00 to 00:00 New York time) and the London and New York sessions.
  • Killzones (approximately, New York time): London 02:00 to 05:00, New York AM 07:00 to 10:00. Convert to the chart's timezone: New York is UTC-4 in summer and UTC-5 in winter. Crypto trades around the clock, so treat session behaviour as a tendency, not a rule.
  • Reference liquidity: previous day high/low (PDH/PDL), previous week high/low, the session highs and lows, the midnight open.
  • Sweep, then displacement: a wick through a reference level, followed by a strong move the other way that breaks the last swing (a market structure shift, MSS) and leaves a fair-value gap.
  • OTE: the 62% to 79% retracement of the displacement leg.

How to mark it

Use 5m to 1H charts; killzones are not visible on 4H and above.

  1. zone kind liquidity for the Asian range and level for PDH/PDL and the previous week's extremes.
  2. marker on the sweep candle (sweep) and on the MSS candle (MSS).
  3. zone kind fvg for the gap left by the displacement (fromTime at the middle candle).
  4. fibonacci over the displacement leg (swing to swing) to show the OTE area.
  5. position for a concrete scenario.

Scenario logic (analysis, not advice)

  • Bullish: sell-side liquidity swept, then displacement up and an MSS. Entry idea: the FVG or the OTE zone on the retrace. Stop reference below the sweep low. Target the opposite liquidity: the top of the session range, then PDH.
  • Bearish: the mirror.
  • State the time window the read applies to, and give the reward-to-risk.

Invalidation

No sweep, or a sweep that is not followed by displacement and an MSS, means there is no setup. A close beyond the sweep extreme in the direction of the sweep means it was a breakout, not a sweep.

Pitfalls

Session times shift with daylight saving time: check the offset before drawing windows. A higher-timeframe level that disagrees with the scenario matters more than the session.