ICT Macro Times: All 8 Windows and How to Use Them

ICT macro times are eight short, fixed windows in the New York trading day — each 20 to 30 minutes long — that Michael J. Huddleston (ICT) teaches as moments when price is delivered with purpose: a run on stops above or below a recent swing, or a quick move into an imbalance. They are narrower than the kill zones and they are not setups on their own. Below are the exact times in New York, London and UTC, the daylight saving dates, what to look for in each window, and one hypothetical NQ plan.

All 8 ICT Macro Times (ET, London, UTC)

London is New York plus five hours for most of the year, because both countries move their clocks by an hour. The exception is the gap of two to three weeks each March and one week around the end of October/start of November, when the US and UK change on different dates; then London is only four hours ahead, so every London time in the table is one hour earlier. UTC is New York plus five hours in winter (EST) and plus four hours in summer (EDT). The daylight saving section below gives the exact gap dates for 2026 and 2027.

To skip the arithmetic, the Killzone & Macro Clock counts down to all eight windows in New York time with daylight saving handled, and the Forex Session Clock shows which sessions are open right now.

What ICT Macros Are — and What They Are Not

ICT teaches macros in his 2023 mentorship. The session titled “ICT Mentorship 2023 – Algorithmic Price Delivery & Time Macros Intro” on his YouTube channel is his introduction to the idea there. In his framing, price is delivered by an algorithm on a schedule, and a macro is a brief window in which that delivery tends to seek liquidity (the stops above an old high or below an old low) or reprice into a fair value gap. You do not need to accept that explanation to use the windows as a timetable.

The eight times on this page are the list most commonly compiled from his teaching, and the one this site uses in every guide and tool. They are not all the same length. The four morning New York windows — 8:50, 9:50, 10:50 and 11:50 — each straddle the turn of an hour and last 20 minutes (the last ten minutes of one hour and the first ten of the next). The two London windows start three minutes past the half-hour and the hour and last 27 minutes. The two afternoon windows, 1:10–1:40 and 3:15–3:45, last 30 minutes.

Macros are not kill zones. A kill zone is a session window of two or three hours (London Open 2:00–5:00 AM, New York Open 7:00–9:00 AM, London Close 10:00 AM–12:00 PM ET, plus the Asian 7:00–10:00 PM). Only some macros sit inside one: the 9:50–10:10 macro, for example, falls after the New York Open kill zone, and the PM and last-hour macros are outside all four. The nesting table below maps each one.

Macros are not setups. A macro tells you when to watch closely. Whether there is a trade depends on your daily bias, a clear draw on liquidity and a valid entry such as a fair value gap after a market structure shift.

Daylight Saving: London, Europe and UTC Conversions

Macro times never move in New York terms; your local equivalent does. The US, UK and EU all use daylight saving but change on different Sundays, creating short gap periods when the usual offset is one hour smaller. CET below means Central European time, including summer time (CEST).

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 (US change 14 March, UK/EU 28 March) and from 31 October to 6 November (UK/EU change 31 October, US 7 November).

UTC has no daylight saving, so its offset changes on the US dates only: New York plus five hours from the first Sunday in November to the second Sunday in March, plus four the rest of the year. The simplest fix is to set your chart to New York time (see the TradingView section).

Why These Times? ICT’s Explanation and the Market Calendar

ICT’s explanation is the algorithmic one above. We have not found a published rationale for each exact minute, and the “algorithm” claim cannot be tested from outside. What can be checked is how the windows line up with the market calendar. The 2:33 window runs into the London open (3:00 AM ET for most of the year) and 4:03 starts an hour into London. The 8:50 window sits between the 8:30 AM US data and the 9:30 AM cash open; 9:50 brackets the 10:00 AM releases; 10:50 brackets 11:00 AM ET, the 4:00 PM London WM/Reuters FX fix for most of the year. The lunch window falls as London’s day ends, 1:10 overlaps the end of lunch, and 3:15 sits in the last hour before the 4:00 PM close.

That does not prove ICT’s explanation, but it shows the windows sit around opens, closes, data releases and fixes — moments when participation changes and resting orders are likely to be hit.

What to Watch in Each Macro

These are tendencies to check against the chart, not rules: any window can be quiet, and any window can move against your bias.

2:33–3:00 AM ET — London macro 1

Inside the London Open kill zone, in the last 27 minutes before London opens. Price has usually ranged through the Asian session, and this window often probes one side of that range. On a bearish day the classic picture is a push above the Asian high — the start of the Judas swing — that fails to hold. It often produces only the first leg, so mark any gap it leaves and wait for a market structure shift before treating it as an entry.

4:03–4:30 AM ET — London macro 2

An hour into London, just after the London Silver Bullet hour (3:00–4:00 AM). If the Judas swing has not completed, this is where it often does: the sweep beyond the Asian range, a close back inside and a shift in structure that leaves a gap. If the London move already happened, this window more often shows a retracement into that gap. For forex and gold traders it is usually the London window that gets the most attention.

8:50–9:10 AM ET — New York pre-open

Overlaps the last ten minutes of the New York Open kill zone, after the 8:30 AM data. On NQ and ES this macro often extends one side of the pre-market range, adding to the liquidity the 9:30 open may then run. It is rarely the best entry window on index futures, but any gap it leaves is a useful reference for the 9:50 window.

9:50–10:10 AM ET — New York AM 1

Usually the most-watched macro for index futures. It comes 20 minutes after the cash open, after the New York Open kill zone has ended, and runs into the start of both the London Close kill zone and the AM Silver Bullet hour at 10:00, when some US data is also released. The opening minutes often run the pre-market high or low; this window is frequently where that run fails, structure shifts and a fair value gap forms. The window ends at 10:10 — there is no separate 10:10 macro.

10:50–11:10 AM ET — New York AM 2

Inside the London Close kill zone, around the 11:00 AM ET (4:00 PM London) FX fix and the end of the AM Silver Bullet hour. After a clean morning move it often marks a pause, a retracement or the first internal target. If you are in a trade from the 9:50 window, it is a natural checkpoint; if you missed the morning, it can offer a retracement entry — or the start of the counter-move the London close is known for.

1:10–1:40 PM ET — PM macro

Overlaps the end of lunch at 1:30 PM, before the PM Silver Bullet hour (2:00–3:00 PM). Price often runs the lunch or morning high or low, then sets the afternoon direction. On FOMC days the statement comes at 2:00 PM ET and the press conference at 2:30 PM, so this window falls before the news and is often thin and erratic. Our working rule is to skip the PM macros on FOMC days.

The Lunch Macro (11:50 AM–12:10 PM ET)

The lunch macro gets far less attention than the morning windows. It overlaps the last ten minutes of the London Close kill zone and sits inside the New York lunch (11:30 AM–1:30 PM), when European desks are closing and volume usually drops. ICT’s broader teaching treats lunch as a time for caution, and that is the right default here.

What the window is useful for:

• Seeing whether the morning range gets raided. A short run beyond the morning high or low followed by a return into the range often marks liquidity the afternoon no longer needs to take.
• Seeing whether the morning move is finished. A retracement into the morning’s last fair value gap that holds keeps the morning direction alive; a close through it argues for patience.
• Marking levels for the afternoon. The high, low or gap it leaves is a reference for the 1:10 macro and the PM Silver Bullet hour.

Our working rule: treat it as an observation window unless the morning did very little and lunch produces a clear shift in structure with your bias. Lunch moves are often small and quickly reversed, so trade smaller if you trade it at all.

The Last-Hour Macro (3:15–3:45 PM ET)

The last macro of the day sits inside the final hour of the US cash session, after the PM Silver Bullet hour and before 3:50 PM, when the stock exchanges start publishing closing-auction imbalance information ahead of the 4:00 PM close. It is outside all four kill zones, and the end of the cash session behaves differently from the morning.

What to look for:

• Unfinished business. An intraday high, low or fair value gap that price has approached all afternoon is a common last-hour target.
• Position squaring. Traders and funds flattening into the close can produce a sharp move either way; expect wider spreads and more slippage.
• Context for tomorrow. Where the last hour leaves price relative to the day’s open and range feeds the next session’s bias, even if you do not trade it.

Our working rule: if you trade it, keep targets modest and be flat before the cash close rather than holding a last-hour trade overnight by accident.

How Macros Fit With Kill Zones and the Silver Bullet

Kill zones are session windows of elevated activity. The Silver Bullet is a specific model traded in three one-hour windows (3–4 AM, 10–11 AM and 2–3 PM ET). Macros are the shorter windows on this page. They overlap in places, but none is defined by the others:

Some sources extend the New York Open kill zone to 10:00 AM; on that definition the 9:50 macro straddles its end. Either way, the busiest stretch of the New York morning runs from the 9:30 open into the Silver Bullet hour, and the 9:50 macro sits in the middle of it.

How this site organises it (our framing, not an ICT rule): kill zones decide which part of the day you trade at all; the Silver Bullet or your own model decides what setup you want; macros are the checkpoints where you look hardest for the sweep, the shift and the gap.

Macros and the Daily AMD Cycle (Our Lens)

ICT describes the day in terms of accumulation, manipulation and distribution (the power of three). Mapping macros to phases is our own simplification for a “textbook” day, not an ICT table:

• Accumulation: the Asian session and early pre-market range. There is no macro in the Asian kill zone.
• Manipulation: the run on one side of that range — the London Judas swing around 2:33 and 4:03 for forex, or the run on the pre-market high or low around the 9:30 open for index futures.
• The turn: the shift in structure after that run — on index futures very often in the 9:50–10:10 window, which is why we treat it as the main entry window of the morning. The entry comes from the gap the shift leaves.
• Distribution: the move towards the day’s draw on liquidity, with the later windows often showing pauses, retracements or continuation.

Real days are often less tidy, so use the phases to ask “what should this window be doing today?”, not as a timetable.

Macros on NQ and ES vs Forex vs Gold

NQ and ES. Index futures trade almost around the clock, but the 9:30 AM cash open changes their behaviour, so the New York macros usually matter most: 8:50–9:10 tends to build the pre-market liquidity and 9:50–10:10 is where the post-open run most often resolves. Comparing the two indices for SMT divergence at the open is common — one makes a new high or low while the other does not.

Forex (EUR/USD, GBP/USD). Currency pairs have no cash open, and much of the day’s range is often set in London, so the 2:33 and 4:03 windows matter more. The New York windows still apply — US data at 8:30 and 10:00 AM moves the dollar — and the 10:50–11:10 window around the 11:00 AM fix is specific to currencies.

Gold (XAU/USD). Gold reacts to both the London and New York windows and is sensitive to US data, so the 8:50 and 9:50 windows on CPI or jobs days can be fast. On FOMC days remember the decision arrives at 2:00 PM, after the 1:10 window.

Crypto. Crypto trades 24/7 with no exchange open, so session logic applies more loosely. Some traders watch the New York windows because US hours bring US participants and data; test that on your own charts before relying on it.

How to Use Macro Times in a Trading Plan

Our checklist for using macros inside an ordinary ICT workflow. The timing is the last filter, not the first.

1 — Set the bias and the draw first. Decide from the higher timeframe whether you want longs or shorts and which liquidity price is likely to reach for (see daily bias and draw on liquidity).

2 — Mark the liquidity the window could run. Before the 9:50 window: the pre-market high and low, the high and low since the open, and nearby equal highs or lows. Before the London windows: the Asian range.

3 — Watch for a sweep, a shift and a gap. In a bearish plan, price runs a high, then displaces lower through a recent swing low (a market structure shift), leaving a bearish fair value gap. If the window only drifts, there is nothing to do.

4 — Enter on the retracement. A limit in the gap — for example at its midpoint (consequent encroachment) — gives a defined entry and a structural stop. Our working rule is to cancel an unfilled order when the macro window ends, unless your model (such as the Silver Bullet hour) gives it longer.

5 — Stop at the structure, then size. The stop goes beyond the high or low of the move that ran the liquidity. If that is too far for your account, reduce size or use the micro contract rather than moving the stop. Plan T1 at the nearest internal liquidity and T2 at the day’s draw.

Failed Macros — What They Tell You

A failed macro is a window that moves, but not the way your plan expected. It costs nothing if you did not force a trade, and it usually tells you something.

The window moves against your bias. Say you are bearish and the 9:50 window pushes higher. If the push runs a meaningful high — equal highs, the pre-market high, the high of the open — and then shifts structure back down, it may be the manipulation arriving late, and the plan can resume from the new gap. If price climbs steadily without taking obvious liquidity or shifting down, the likelier reading is that the bias is wrong. Without a specific level taken, stand aside.

Nothing happens. Holiday sessions, days before a major release, or days that trend from the open without a sweep often produce no clean window. Forcing a trade because “it’s macro time” is trading the clock, not the chart. The next check is the 10:50 window — or the next day.

The move comes a few minutes early. Price does not read the clock to the minute. A sweep at 9:44 and a shift at 9:51 is still a usable sequence; judge the structure, not the timestamp.

Walkthrough — Planning an NQ Trade Around the 9:50–10:10 Macro

Before the open. The higher-timeframe read is bearish: NQ is in the premium half of its weekly range (around 21,640 against an equilibrium near 21,200), and the draw on liquidity is the previous day’s low at 21,180, with equal lows at 21,420 on the way. By 8:45 AM the pre-market range is 21,614–21,692.

8:50–9:10 AM macro. Price extends the pre-market high to 21,706 and pulls back. Nothing to trade; buy-side liquidity now rests above 21,706.

9:30 AM open. The first five-minute candle spikes to 21,728, taking those stops, and closes back at 21,678. ES does not exceed its own pre-market high — a bearish SMT divergence. The next candle leaves a swing low at 21,648; a bounce to 21,716 stays below 21,728.

9:50–10:10 AM macro. The 9:50 candle displaces from 21,706 to 21,636 and closes at 21,640, below the 21,648 swing low: a bearish market structure shift. The candle before it has a low of 21,702 and the one after a high of 21,666, leaving a bearish fair value gap of 21,702–21,666 with a midpoint of 21,684.

The plan. Sell limit at 21,684, stop at 21,734 (above the 21,728 sweep high plus a buffer): 50 points of risk, or $1,000 per NQ contract at $20 a point and $100 per MNQ at $2. If that is more than the account’s risk limit, the answer is MNQ, not a tighter stop. T1 is the equal lows at 21,420 (264 points); T2 is the previous day’s low at 21,180 (504 points). Planned management: take part at T1 and move the stop to break-even on the rest.

If price reaches the order. Here the 10:05 candle retraces from 21,658 to 21,686, trading through 21,684, so the limit would fill inside the window. Had the retracement stopped at 21,670, there would be no fill and the order would be cancelled at 10:10 — no chasing. A close back above the top of the gap (21,702) before a fill would void the setup.

After a fill. The stop stays put. If T1 has not been reached by the 10:50–11:10 macro, the plan is to reassess; a strong move back into the gap there argues for reducing or closing rather than hoping.

Putting the Macros on Your TradingView Chart

The most common reason macro times “don’t work” is a chart in the wrong time zone. The full chart setup is in our TradingView setup guide; for macros, three steps cover it.

1 — Set the chart to New York time. Click the time zone at the bottom right of the chart and choose New York. Every time on this page then reads straight off the chart, through daylight saving changes.

2 — Mark the windows you trade. Draw vertical lines at the start and end of each window (for most index traders 8:50, 9:10, 9:50 and 10:10), or a shaded rectangle across each. Drawings are tied to specific bars and do not repeat the next day, so many traders redraw their two or three windows each morning.

3 — Or use a session-shading script. The public library has community scripts that shade time windows, or you can write one with Pine Script session inputs — for example the session 0950-1010 with the time zone America/New_York. Check any script on a one-minute chart: the shading should run from 9:50 to 10:10 New York time in summer and winter.

A 20-minute window is smaller than a single candle on higher timeframes, so watch macros on the one- to five-minute charts and keep the higher timeframe for bias.

Common Macro Time Mistakes

Treating the list as a trade signal. The windows tell you when to look; the chart tells you whether there is anything to do.

Using a fixed offset. A UK or European trader who always adds the same number of hours will be an hour out for part of March and around the end of October. Set the chart to New York time instead.

Entering on the displacement candle. A market order into the fast candle that creates the gap gives a worse price and a wider stop than a limit in the gap. The displacement creates the entry zone; it is not the entry.

Flipping direction because the window moved. A sharp move against your bias during a macro is either the manipulation arriving late or a sign the bias is wrong. Neither is a reason to reverse on the spot.

Frequently Asked Questions