ICT Kill Zones: Times, Sessions and How to Use Them

ICT kill zones are the session windows in which Michael J. Huddleston, the Inner Circle Trader, teaches traders to look for setups, because volume and volatility tend to rise around the major session opens. This site uses four, in New York time: 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. A kill zone tells you when to pay attention; it is not a trade signal.

ICT Kill Zone Times

London is five hours ahead of New York for most of the year. In the two to three weeks each March and the week around the end of October, when the US and UK change their clocks on different dates, it is only four hours ahead, so every London time is one hour earlier (see daylight saving below). UTC changes on the US dates: “winter” runs from the first Sunday in November to the second Sunday in March. The Asian window starts in the New York evening, so in London and UTC it falls after midnight, on the next calendar day.

Three other windows are often mixed up with kill zones. The Silver Bullet hours (3–4 AM, 10–11 AM and 2–3 PM) and the ICT macros are shorter windows, some inside kill zones and some outside them. The New York lunch, 11:30 AM–1:30 PM, is the quiet midday stretch most ICT traders leave alone. Some sources extend the New York kill zone to 10:00 AM so that it includes the 9:30 AM equity open; this site keeps 7:00–9:00 AM and treats 10:00 AM onward as the London Close window.

To see which window is open right now, the free Killzone & Macro Clock counts down to each one in New York time, with daylight saving handled.

Why Kill Zones Exist

Kill zones are built around the working hours of the main trading centres. When London opens, and again when New York's economic data and equity open arrive, more participants place orders at the same time: volume rises, spreads tighten and price is more likely to make a sustained move. In between, particularly in the late New York afternoon and the hours before London, many markets drift inside a range.

ICT's use of these windows is specific. He teaches that price tends to run the liquidity resting above an old high or below an old low (clusters of stop orders), then reverse with displacement toward the opposite pool, and that this sequence is most worth trading when it happens inside a kill zone. The kill zone does not create the setup. It narrows the part of the day in which you look for one, and it tells you which highs and lows are likely to matter: the Asian range for London, the London and overnight range for New York.

Huddleston has taught this session framing across years of free material on his YouTube channel, including the 2022 ICT Mentorship, where the model is taught as a raid and market structure shift inside a kill zone (see our ICT 2022 Model guide). You will find versions of the times that differ by 30 to 60 minutes, mostly in indicators and course notes. The times on this page are the set used across this site.

The Four ICT Kill Zones

Asian Kill Zone — 7:00 to 10:00 PM ET

The Asian kill zone works differently from the other three. For most instruments traded with ICT concepts it is less a window for entries than the start of the overnight range. That range, the Asian range, is usually marked a little differently from the kill zone: from about 8:00 PM to midnight ET, as on our Asian range guide and the concepts hub. Its high and low become reference levels: buy-side liquidity above the high and sell-side liquidity below the low. The London session frequently runs one side of that range before making its main move of the day (see the Judas swing guide).

London Open Kill Zone — 2:00 to 5:00 AM ET

The London Open window starts an hour before the London market opens at 3:00 AM ET (8:00 AM in London) and runs for two hours after it. The sequence ICT describes here: price runs the Asian high or low, often against the day's likely direction (the Judas swing), then displaces back through a recent swing point and leaves a fair value gap to enter on. It can play out quickly, often within the first hour or so after the London open.

Two ICT macro windows sit inside this kill zone, 2:33–3:00 AM and 4:03–4:30 AM, as does the 3–4 AM London Silver Bullet hour. Forex traders usually focus on EUR/USD and GBP/USD; index futures traders often use London mainly to see which side of the overnight range has been taken before New York.

New York Open Kill Zone — 7:00 to 9:00 AM ET

The New York Open window overlaps the London afternoon, when both centres are active. It contains the 8:30 AM US economic releases (payrolls, CPI and others on the days they are published), which often produce the spike that runs a London or overnight high or low. The 8:50–9:10 AM macro overlaps its last ten minutes, and the 9:30 AM US equity open comes just after it ends.

What to watch: which London or overnight high or low is taken, whether price then displaces the other way through a recent swing point (a market structure shift), and whether that leaves a fair value gap pointing in the direction of your daily bias. On major news days, many traders wait until after the release rather than holding a resting order through it.

Our working rule: if London has already run both sides of the overnight range, or there is no clean run on liquidity and displacement by the end of the 10–11 AM hour, we stop looking for new morning entries. The New York lunch (11:30 AM–1:30 PM) follows.

Instruments: NQ, ES, EUR/USD, GBP/USD and XAU/USD are all widely traded in this window. Index futures tend to become more active from the 8:30 AM data onward and again at the 9:30 AM equity open.

London Close Kill Zone — 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM ET

London Close covers the last two hours of the London trading day (3:00–5:00 PM in London for most of the year). As European desks square their positions, the morning move often either extends once more or retraces part of the day's range. The 11:00 AM ET London fix (4:00 PM in London for most of the year) falls in the middle of the window. See the London Close guide for more detail.

It is most useful in three situations:

• A retracement after the morning run. If New York drove price into a higher-timeframe level (an old high, a daily fair value gap) before 10:00 AM, London Close often retraces part of that move. Under our checklist only the 10–11 AM Silver Bullet hour qualifies for a new entry here; after 11:00 AM this is mainly a time to manage what you already hold.
• An unfinished morning move. If the morning moved toward the draw on liquidity but did not reach it, the 10–11 AM hour can offer a second entry in the same direction after a small raid and shift.
• A missed New York setup. The AM Silver Bullet hour, 10:00–11:00 AM, is the first hour of this kill zone.

What Falls Inside Each Kill Zone

Kill zones overlap with the other time references used in ICT. This table lists what sits inside or next to each window, all in New York time, matching our macro times and Silver Bullet guides.

Worked Example: A London Open Plan on GBP/USD

Bias. It is a Tuesday. On the daily chart GBP/USD is trading in premium of its range, and the draw on liquidity is the previous week's low at 1.26850, so the bias is bearish.

Asian range. Overnight, price holds between 1.27180 (Asian range low, sell-side liquidity) and 1.27420 (Asian range high, buy-side liquidity). Both levels are marked before London.

London Open kill zone. At 2:14 AM ET price starts pushing higher, and a 5-minute swing low forms at 1.27372. At 2:22 AM price trades through the Asian range high to 1.27455, taking the buy stops above 1.27420, and that candle's low is 1.27410. The next 5-minute candle is a large bearish one that drives through 1.27372: displacement and a market structure shift. The candle after it has a high of 1.27366, so a bearish fair value gap is left between candle 1's low (1.27410) and candle 3's high (1.27366). Its midpoint (consequent encroachment) is 1.27388.

The plan. A sell limit at 1.27388, valid until the kill zone ends at 5:00 AM. It only fills if price retraces up to 1.27388; if it never does, there is no trade. The stop goes at 1.27465, just above the 1.27455 raid high: 7.7 pips of risk, about $77 per standard lot. If that is more than your risk limit allows, trade a smaller size rather than moving the stop.

The possible outcomes are part of the plan: no retrace to 1.27388 by 5:00 AM and the order is cancelled; a trade above 1.27465 before the first target is a full 1R loss; if price reaches 1.27180 first, half the position is closed and the stop on the rest moves to the entry price.

Kill Zones and Daily Bias

Kill zones and daily bias answer different questions. The kill zone tells you when to look; the bias tells you which direction to look for. Before a window opens, you want to know the higher-timeframe direction, the draw on liquidity and whether price is in premium or discount of its range. Then, inside the window, you are waiting for one kind of setup rather than reacting to every move.

A kill zone without a bias is just a period of time on the chart. If the setup that forms inside the window points against your bias, the usual choice is to let it go.

Using Kill Zones as a Filter

Our working rule is simple: if a setup did not form inside a kill zone, or inside a named window you have chosen to trade such as a Silver Bullet hour, skip it. A fair value gap that forms at 12:45 PM in the middle of the New York lunch can look identical to one that forms at 2:30 AM during the London Open, but the conditions around it are different: less participation, smaller moves and more false breaks.

This matters most when you are learning. Trading every clean-looking pattern at any hour makes it very hard to tell whether a loss came from a bad read or from the time of day. Restricting yourself to one or two windows gives you a consistent sample to review in your journal.

Common Kill Zone Mistakes

• Trading every kill zone every day. Not every session produces a clean setup. Some London sessions never raid a clear pool or never displace. Recognising that and walking away is part of the skill.
• Treating the start of a kill zone as an entry signal. The window opening only means it is time to pay attention. You still need a sweep, a market structure shift, a fair value gap and agreement with your bias.
• Overtrading the New York lunch (11:30 AM–1:30 PM). Volume usually drops and price tends to chop, and many traders give back morning gains here. Our working rule: after the London Close kill zone ends at noon, only manage open trades until the afternoon session. See the New York lunch guide.
• Getting the time zone wrong. Kill zones are fixed in New York time, which is EST in winter and EDT in summer. If your chart is set to UTC or your local time, an hour's error around a daylight saving change can put you in the wrong window. Set the chart to New York time or use the Killzone Clock.
• Watching too many markets. Following six pairs across three windows leads to chasing setups and late entries. Pick one or two instruments, such as NQ for the New York windows or EUR/USD and GBP/USD for London, and learn how they behave in the window you trade.

Kill Zone Times and Daylight Saving Time

Kill zone times never move in New York terms; what moves is your local equivalent. The US, UK and EU all use daylight saving, but they change on different Sundays, which creates short gap periods when the usual offset is one hour smaller.

The gap weeks. In 2026 the US moved to daylight time on Sunday 8 March and the UK and EU followed on Sunday 29 March, so from 8 to 28 March London was only four hours ahead of New York. In the autumn the UK and EU return to standard time on Sunday 25 October 2026 and the US on Sunday 1 November 2026, so from 25 to 31 October the offset is again four hours. In 2027 the gaps run from 14 to 27 March and from 31 October to 6 November. UTC times for each window are in the table at the top of this page.

When Kill Zones Fail: Reading a Dead Session

Not every kill zone produces a qualifying setup. Spotting a dead session early, and stopping, is as useful as knowing how to enter a good one. Three patterns usually mean a window is not going to offer a clean trade.

Two-way chop at the open. Price makes a small move one way, reverses, then moves the same distance the other way without committing. There is no convincing run on one side followed by displacement, which is the sequence the kill zone is supposed to frame.

Both sides already taken. If price swept both the overnight high and the overnight low before the window opened, the obvious liquidity on each side is gone. The window that follows often drifts without clear direction. Our working rule is to skip it and wait for the next session.

No reaction to the sweep. Price runs below the overnight low and simply keeps going, with no close back inside the range. That is a breakout, not a raid. Our working rule: if price cannot reclaim the swept level within two or three 5-minute candles, treat the reversal idea as invalid.

Frequently Asked Questions