A common reason people struggle with ICT is starting in the wrong place: learning concepts out of order and trading live before the foundation is solid. Here is what ICT is, what to learn first and in what order, and what a sensible first three months can look like.
Updated 29 September 2026 · 18 min read · Beginner level
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Learning path
Key takeaways
What it is: ICT is the trading method taught by Michael J. Huddleston, the Inner Circle Trader: a way of reading where liquidity sits, how price moves between liquidity and imbalances, and when in the day to look for trades.
What to learn first: seven foundations, in this order: market structure → liquidity → daily bias → kill zones → fair value gaps → order blocks → power of three (AMD). Roughly one a week, with chart practice in between.
Our suggested pace: six weeks or more of journalled paper and demo trading before any real money. Most people need several months before they can spot setups reliably as they form.
ICT is not a mechanical system with fixed rules. It is a framework for reading price: where resting orders (liquidity) are likely to sit, how price tends to run that liquidity before moving the other way, and how it travels toward a draw on liquidity. Once the framework clicks, a stop run above an old high stops looking like a failed breakout and starts looking like a possible setup.
The difficulty for beginners is volume: ICT has dozens of named concepts, and most free material either presents them all at once or teaches them in isolation. This guide picks the seven that everything else builds on, puts them in an order that works, and lays out what the first three months of study can look like before any real money is at risk.
What Is ICT Trading?
ICT (Inner Circle Trader) trading is the method taught by Michael J. Huddleston, mostly through free YouTube lectures and mentorships. For a beginner it comes down to seven foundations learned in order, set out below; our ICT concepts hub uses the same order for its core list.
ICT stands for Inner Circle Trader, the name under which Michael J. Huddleston has published forex and futures trading education for well over a decade. Most of it is free: YouTube lectures and yearly mentorship series such as the 2022 mentorship and the 2024 mentorship, on his YouTube channel.
The central idea in his teaching is that price is not random around obvious highs and lows. Stop orders cluster there, and ICT teaches that price tends to run those clusters, often at predictable times of day, before moving toward the opposite side. A retail trader who buys a breakout above an old high may simply be providing the orders that let larger participants sell. ICT's approach is to wait for that run on liquidity, see price reverse with conviction, and then enter in the new direction.
ICT talks often about "smart money", and a simplified vocabulary that grew out of his public material is now taught as Smart Money Concepts (SMC). The two overlap but are not the same: SMC leans on terms such as BOS, CHoCH and inducement, while ICT's own teaching uses the market structure shift and puts more weight on time of day. See ICT vs SMC for the differences.
ICT is a way of reading the chart rather than a fixed rulebook. Two ICT traders may choose slightly different entries on the same chart; what they should agree on is the direction, the liquidity levels and where price is likely heading. The concepts are the grammar; each trade is a sentence built from them.
Before You Learn a Single Concept
There are three things every ICT beginner needs to establish before they open a chart and try to identify setups. Skipping them is a common reason for a rough start.
1 — Choose one market and stay there for at least three months. ICT works across forex, indices, and gold. But every market has its own character — its own typical range, its own kill zone behaviour, its own session patterns. EUR/USD behaves differently to GBP/USD, which behaves differently to NQ. Beginners who jump between markets learn the concepts but never learn how any single market actually moves. Pick one. For most beginners, NQ or EUR/USD is a sensible choice. NQ (Nasdaq-100 futures, or the micro contract MNQ) is the instrument most of ICT's recent examples use; EUR/USD suits forex traders. Both are highly liquid and have plenty of ICT-focused material.
2 — Get a proper charting setup. You need a platform that shows the exact time — down to the minute — with New York time clearly visible. TradingView is widely used. You need at minimum: the daily chart, the 4-hour chart, the 1-hour chart, and the 15-minute chart open simultaneously. Many ICT setups start with something on the daily chart, are refined on the 4-hour or 1-hour, and are entered on the 15-minute or lower. Without that multi-timeframe view you are missing context.
3 — Commit to six weeks or more of paper and demo trading (our suggestion). Whether on paper or on a demo account, treat it seriously and keep a journal — recording every potential setup you see, whether you'd take it, where the entry and stop would be, what the target is. A journal kept over those weeks will tell you more about your own pattern recognition than more reading will. You will discover which concepts you actually understand versus which ones you think you understand.
The one mindset shift that matters most
Stop thinking about trades as setups to enter. Start thinking about price as moving toward a destination: in ICT terms, from one liquidity pool toward another. Your job is to identify where price is coming from, where it is going, and where the safest place to get on board is. The entry is the last decision, not the first.
What ICT Sees vs What a Retail Trader Sees — Same ChartRetail: support/resistance · ICT: liquidity pools, sweep, delivery to target
Same chart, two completely different interpretations. Schematic, not a real chart. Read as support and resistance, the push above the highs is a breakout to buy, and the buyer is stopped out when price reverses. Read the ICT way, the equal highs hold buy-side liquidity; the push above them is a run on that liquidity, and the trade only comes after the market structure shift, at the fair value gap it leaves. The same reading can also be wrong: if price holds above the highs, it was a real breakout.
The 7 Foundational Concepts — Learn These First
ICT has dozens of concepts, but they are not equal in importance. Some are foundational — every other concept depends on them. Some are refinement tools that improve entries once the foundation is solid. Some are advanced techniques for specific market conditions. If you try to learn everything at once, you learn nothing deeply enough to act on it.
These seven form the foundation. Learn them in this order. Do not move on to the next concept until you can reliably mark the current one on your charts. The same order is used for the core list on our ICT concepts page, which adds displacement before fair value gaps.
1
Market Structure and the Market Structure Shift (MSS)
The foundation. Learn to read swing highs and lows on each timeframe: higher highs and higher lows describe a bullish market, lower highs and lower lows a bearish one. ICT's key structural event is the market structure shift: after price runs a prior high or low, it reverses with displacement and breaks the most recent short-term swing point the other way. You will also meet "BOS" (break of structure) and "CHoCH" (change of character) online; those are SMC terms rather than ICT's own, although they describe similar breaks.
Where are the orders? Buy-side liquidity sits above old highs and relatively equal highs (the buy stops of short sellers and breakout buyers); sell-side liquidity sits below old lows and equal lows. ICT teaches that price tends to run one pool and then move toward the other. Once you can see these pools, many "random" wicks start to look like stop runs.
Daily bias is the direction you expect the day's range to expand toward, built from the higher timeframe down: what has price just done, which high or low is it reaching for (the draw on liquidity), and is it trading in premium or discount of its range? It filters out setups that look clean but point the wrong way. It is a working hypothesis for the session, not a prediction, and it changes if price takes the opposite pool with displacement.
ICT does not trade around the clock. The four kill zones used on this site, in New York time, are Asian 7:00–10:00 PM, London Open 2:00–5:00 AM, New York Open 7:00–9:00 AM and London Close 10:00 AM–12:00 PM. The New York afternoon (1:30–4:00 PM) is a separate session with its own windows, and the lunch hour in between (11:30 AM–1:30 PM) is usually left alone. Our suggestion for a beginner in US hours is to study one window, such as the 10:00–11:00 AM Silver Bullet hour at the start of London Close, rather than all of them.
A fair value gap (FVG) is a three-candle pattern where the middle candle moves so strongly that the wicks of candles 1 and 3 do not overlap. In a bearish FVG the gap runs from candle 1's low down to candle 3's high; in a bullish one from candle 1's high up to candle 3's low. Price often returns into the gap, and its midpoint, called consequent encroachment (CE), is a common entry reference. This is where many beginners first start seeing ICT concepts on their own charts.
A bearish order block is the last up-close candle before a down-move that displaces and breaks structure; a bullish order block is the last down-close candle before an up-move that does the same. When price returns to it, ICT watches for the block to hold, often using its mean threshold (50% of the candle's body) as the level that should not be closed through. Order blocks are most useful in the right half of the range (bearish blocks in premium, bullish in discount) and with a fair value gap next to them.
Power of Three (AMD) — Accumulation, Manipulation, Distribution
The idea that ties the rest together. ICT describes how a daily, weekly or session candle tends to form: accumulation near the open, a manipulation move against the eventual direction (often the Judas swing), then distribution, the expansion toward the real objective. On a bearish day that means price often trades above the opening price first, then falls and closes near the low. The practical use is to expect that early move against your bias instead of chasing it.
Here is a specific, structured learning path. Month 1 is study with no trades. Months 2 and 3 are six weeks or more of journalled paper and then demo trading, still with no real money. Take longer at any stage if you need it. This is our suggested plan, not something ICT prescribes.
Month 1 Weeks 1–2
Market Structure + Liquidity only
Open the 4-hour chart on NQ or EUR/USD — whichever market you plan to trade. Spend two weeks doing nothing but marking swing highs and lows, market structure shifts, and equal highs and lows as buy-side and sell-side liquidity pools. Do not look at any other concept. Do this until it is automatic — you see the structure without looking for it. Mark at least 30 clean examples in a notebook or TradingView chart notes.
Month 1 Weeks 3–4
Daily bias + Kill zones
Now add the daily bias framework. Each Sunday evening, look at the weekly chart and note whether price is in premium or discount of the weekly dealing range. Before each session, write down your daily bias and the draw on liquidity, then check afterwards whether the session agreed. Track this for two weeks. At the same time, watch one window every day (for US-based traders the 10:00–11:00 AM Silver Bullet hour is convenient): just watch, don't trade.
Month 2 Weeks 1–2
Fair Value Gaps + Order Blocks — paper trading begins
Add FVGs and order blocks to your chart marking. Now start paper trading: when you see a valid FVG or order block in the right half of the range, during your chosen window, in the direction of your bias, write down the hypothetical trade. Entry, stop, target. Track the result. Do not enter real money. The goal is 20 fully documented paper trades, however long that takes.
Month 2 Weeks 3–4
Power of three (AMD) + reviewing your paper trades
Add the AMD lens to your chart reading. Before each session, ask: where is the accumulation range? Has the manipulation move (the Judas swing) happened yet, or is it still likely? Is distribution underway? Then review your paper trades through the same lens: were you entering during the manipulation move, chasing distribution late, or waiting for the shift?
Month 3
Demo account trading — still not live
Open a demo account with a broker that matches your intended live broker (same spreads, same execution speed). Trade the demo account as if it were real — fixed position size, hard stops, journal every trade. The goal is 40 demo trades, which may take several months, with a journal that records your results, average reward-to-risk and what the losing trades had in common. Only after that would we consider a very small live account, with a fixed monthly loss limit you can genuinely afford to lose.
Your First ICT Setup — Step by Step
Here is a sequence to study (on paper first) for your first ICT setup. It uses the Silver Bullet hour from 10:00 to 11:00 AM ET, which is convenient for US-based beginners, on NQ or EUR/USD.
Sunday evening (5 minutes): Open the weekly chart. Is price above or below the 50% level (equilibrium) of the weekly dealing range? Above means premium, which leans bearish; below means discount, which leans bullish. This is a simple starting rule, not the full bias method; write it down.
Monday–Friday morning before 10 AM ET (10 minutes): Open the daily chart. Note where price closed the prior day and where it opened today. Is the daily range developing in premium (bearish signals) or discount (bullish signals)? This refines your bias. Mark the previous day's high and low with horizontal lines — these are your primary liquidity reference levels.
10:00 AM ET — Silver Bullet window opens: Switch to the 15-minute chart. Watch the first part of the hour. Price will often make a small move in one direction first; this may be the manipulation leg of the move. If the bias is bearish and price rallies slightly above a recent high in the first 15 minutes, that is a potential Judas sweeping buy-side liquidity.
After the raid (often within the first 45 minutes) — entry setup: After any sweep, watch for a market structure shift on the 5-minute chart. When the MSS occurs, the displacement usually leaves a bearish FVG. On paper, place a sell limit at the gap's midpoint (CE), valid until 11:00 AM. The stop goes above the raid high; if that is too wide for your risk, use a smaller size or a micro contract rather than a tighter stop. Target the nearest liquidity pool below: the prior day's low, equal lows, or the low of the current daily dealing range.
If no setup has formed by about 10:45 AM, or the order has not filled by 11:00 AM: close the chart. There is no trade today. Not forcing setups that aren't there is one of the most important skills in ICT; the window does not produce a setup every day, and trying to make something happen in a quiet hour is how beginners take their worst trades.
A First Setup to Study — Silver Bullet Hour (Schematic)10–11 AM ET · bearish bias · raid on the previous day high · MSS · FVG entry · previous day low target
Schematic, not a real chart. ① Price is in weekly premium (bearish lean). ② Around 10:00 AM price runs above the previous day high (buy-side liquidity). ③ The next candle displaces through the recent swing low: the market structure shift. ④ That leaves a bearish FVG between the raid candle's low and the third candle's high; a sell limit sits at its midpoint (CE) and only fills if price retraces to it before 11:00 AM. ⑤ Target: the previous day low. ⑥ Stop above the raid high.
Common ICT Beginner Mistakes
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Learning too many concepts at once
ICT has dozens of named concepts. Beginners often try to learn them all before trading anything. The result is surface-level familiarity with everything and deep understanding of nothing. Pick the seven foundations above and get comfortable with them before touching anything else. ICT concepts build on each other — you cannot properly understand a Breaker Block without first understanding order blocks, which requires understanding market structure. The order matters.
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Trading live money before you're ready
It is tempting to open a live account soon after discovering ICT content, before the concepts are reliable on a live chart, and early losses can set you back months. Six weeks or more of journalled paper and demo trading makes that less likely. Demo trading feels boring because there's nothing at stake — that's the point. The goal of demo trading is not to make money. It is to make mistakes cheaply while you build the pattern recognition that trading live money requires.
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Trading outside kill zones
Many beginners trade whenever they see a pattern: the lunch hour, the late afternoon, a quiet Sunday evening. ICT concentrates on the kill zones because participation and follow-through are usually better there; outside them you meet thinner markets, wider spreads and choppy price action that looks like a setup but often goes nowhere. For a beginner, one window per day is plenty.
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Entering on the Judas candle instead of after the MSS
The London open push above the Asian high looks like a breakout, and breakout traders buy it. The ICT trader waits, because that push may be the Judas swing rather than the trade. The trade is the FVG that forms after the market structure shift confirms the reversal. Entering on the Judas candle itself means buying near the high or selling near the low of the false move, before the real move has shown itself. It is one of the most common entry mistakes, and usually a sign that the power of three sequence has not sunk in yet.
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Ignoring the daily bias
A bearish FVG that forms on a day your bias is bullish is not a short setup just because it looks clean; with a bullish bias you wait for a bullish FVG or order block in discount. Beginners often see a clean bearish FVG and short it regardless of whether the day is bullish or bearish, because the FVG looks textbook. The daily bias is the filter that determines which direction to trade any PD array. Without it, you are flipping a coin on direction and calling it ICT.
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Not journalling trades
Most ICT beginners watch videos, mark up charts, maybe take a few trades, and then repeat the cycle. Without a trading journal — entry, stop, target, result, what the setup was, what the bias was, what the AMD phase was — you have no data. You cannot improve what you cannot measure. After 20 trades without a journal, you cannot tell whether you are improving or just getting lucky. After 20 trades with one, you can usually see which concept you are misapplying. See our trading journal guide.
What to Expect — Honest Timeline
ICT is learnable, but it usually takes longer than people expect. Here is a realistic picture of each phase; everyone's pace is different.
Weeks 1–4: Confusion. Every concept seems to make sense when you read it but disappears from recognition on a live chart. This is normal — you are building new pattern recognition in your brain, and pattern recognition takes repetition. Keep marking charts daily. It will start clicking.
Months 1–2: Recognition without execution. You can identify FVGs and order blocks on the chart after the fact but struggle to recognise them as they form. Your paper trades are inconsistent — some clean setups are missed, some trades are taken without proper bias confirmation. The journal is revealing exactly where the gaps are.
Month 3: Possibly your first clean setups in real time. Some learners start having days where every element lines up — bias confirmed, kill zone active, Judas sweep visible, MSS clear, FVG obvious, entry clean. These setups will feel different from the forced ones, and your journal will start to show why.
Months 4–6: For some learners, consistency starts to emerge. You may still have significant losing streaks — this is normal and happens to experienced ICT traders too. The difference is that your journal can show you the pattern: the losses cluster around specific market conditions (news days, low-liquidity sessions, days when you broke the kill zone rule). You can start addressing them systematically.
6+ months: Some traders consider a prop firm evaluation at this stage rather than trading a large amount of their own capital. The rules of an evaluation (daily loss limits, maximum drawdown) enforce defined risk, but they also cost money and many are failed; read the terms carefully (see our prop firm guide).
What to Read Next
You have the foundation map. Now execute it. Here is the reading sequence that follows this guide:
Start with ICT Market Structure — spend a week on nothing else until marking swing points and market structure shifts is automatic. Then move to ICT Liquidity to understand where the orders are. Then ICT Daily Bias to learn how to determine direction before each session. Then ICT Kill Zones to learn when to look for setups. Then ICT Fair Value Gap for your first entry concept. Then ICT Order Block for your second entry concept. Finally Power of Three (also taught as AMD) to tie the framework together. The ICT concepts hub follows the same order and defines each term in a paragraph, which makes it a useful review sheet.
Do not try to read all of these in one sitting. One a week, with daily chart marking between readings, is the pace we suggest.
ICT trading is the method taught by Michael J. Huddleston, who trades and teaches as the Inner Circle Trader, mostly through free YouTube lectures and mentorships. It focuses on where liquidity (clusters of stop orders) sits above old highs and below old lows, how price tends to run that liquidity and then move toward the opposite side, and when in the day to look for trades. It is a framework for reading the chart rather than a fixed rulebook, and it does not guarantee results.
How long does it take to learn ICT trading?
It varies a lot, but most people need several months of steady study and practice before they can spot setups reliably as they form. Our suggested plan is a first month of study and chart marking with no trades, followed by six weeks or more of journalled paper and then demo trading before any real money. Take longer at any stage if you need to.
What markets does ICT work on?
The concepts can be applied to any liquid market, and ICT teaches them mainly on major forex pairs (such as EUR/USD and GBP/USD) and US index futures (ES and NQ); gold is also popular. The timing tools are built around London and New York session hours, so they fit those markets most naturally. For beginners, NQ (or the micro MNQ) and EUR/USD are sensible starting markets. No market guarantees results.
Do I need to watch the London open to trade ICT?
No. The London Open kill zone (2:00–5:00 AM New York time) suits traders in Europe, but US-based traders often work the New York Open kill zone (7:00–9:00 AM), the London Close kill zone (10:00 AM–12:00 PM) or the 10:00–11:00 AM Silver Bullet hour at the start of London Close. Choose one window that fits your schedule and study it consistently.
What is the first ICT concept a beginner should learn?
Market structure: reading swing highs and lows, and recognising ICT's market structure shift, when price runs a prior high or low and then breaks the most recent short-term swing point the other way with displacement. You will also see BOS and CHoCH online; those are Smart Money Concepts (SMC) terms rather than ICT's own. Everything else, from daily bias to entries, depends on reading structure correctly.
The free ICT One Model Playbook — the study order, one model written as criteria, and two sheets you print. It argues against buying anything, including from me.
