ICT Reaper IFVG

What Is the ICT Reaper IFVG?

The ICT Reaper (often called the Reaper IFVG or Reaper inversion fair value gap) is a PD array Michael Huddleston introduced in his 2023 mentorship. Student notes of the lesson define a bullish Reaper as a fair value gap in the discount half of the impulsive price leg of a bullish breaker block, and a bearish Reaper as a fair value gap in the premium half of the impulsive leg of a bearish breaker. Community summaries describe it as a special kind of inversion fair value gap that forms inside the breaker’s impulsive leg.

In plain terms, it is a gap that sits deep inside a breaker’s impulsive leg, at the better-priced end for the breaker’s direction: low for longs, high for shorts. It is a more specific label for a level that already exists on the chart, not a new kind of pattern.

Where It Comes From

The name comes from a 2023 mentorship lesson titled “ICT Mentorship 2023 – ICT Reaper PD Array Introduction & Market Review”. The dating is supported by several independent traces:

• Students were sharing clips titled “ICT Mentorship 2023 – ICT Reaper PD Array Introduction” on X by 19 July 2023.
• A student forum archive of the 2023 mentorship (ICT Sharks) lists the lesson just before the 23 July 2023 market review. That forum is a secondary source.
• An X post from 10 August 2023 described it as a “brand new” PD array ICT had recently revealed. It gave the definition quoted above: a gap in the discount of the impulsive leg of a bullish breaker, or in the premium of a bearish one.

An earlier version of this page called the Reaper the newest named PD array and dated it to 2026. That was wrong. We also could not find a written definition from ICT himself. What follows relies on student notes of the lesson, which is why we flag where they differ.

How the Pieces Fit

The Reaper sits inside a breaker block pattern, so start there. On this site, a breaker is an order block that fails after a liquidity sweep. In the bullish case the sequence is:

1. Price makes a swing high, then drops and takes out an earlier low (the liquidity sweep).
2. Price then rallies hard and breaks above that swing high. This is the impulsive price leg, running from the sweep low to the new high.
3. The up-close candle (or candles) that started the drop into the sweep has failed as a bearish order block. It is now a bullish breaker, watched as support.

Now measure the impulsive leg from its low to its high and split it at 50%. The lower half is discount and the upper half is premium. A fair value gap in the lower (discount) half of that leg is what the notes call a bullish Reaper. For a bearish Reaper, flip everything: the leg runs from the sweep high down through the swing low, and the gap must sit in its upper (premium) half.

Why “inversion”? This is where the sources are thinnest. The label, and one summary’s wording (“a special type of inverse FVG”), suggest the gap is used the way an inversion FVG is used: a gap price has closed through, then watched from the other side. One plausible reading of the bullish case goes like this. The sell-off into the sweep leaves a bearish gap in what later becomes the discount half of the rally. The rally closes through that gap, and the gap is then watched as support. Other notes describe any fair value gap in that half of the leg. We have not been able to confirm from a primary source which reading ICT intended. Check the lesson if the distinction matters to your plan.

Reaper vs Unicorn

Both combine a fair value gap with a breaker, so they are easy to confuse.

A single chart can contain both: a gap that overlaps the breaker (a Unicorn) and another gap further down the leg in discount (a Reaper, in the bullish case).

Using It in a Plan (Our Working Approach)

We have not found trading rules for the Reaper that we can attribute to ICT with confidence. So the approach below is ours. It treats the Reaper as one more PD array inside the standard sequence the site teaches in the ICT 2022 model guide.

• Context first. A breaker only matters if it points toward a draw on liquidity you already expected. The Reaper does not create a bias.
• Mark the leg. After the breaker forms, mark the impulsive leg from its low to its high (bullish), draw the 50% line, and mark any fair value gap in the discount half. The gap’s edges are candle 1’s and candle 3’s wick extremes, and its consequent encroachment is the midpoint between them.
• Entry. A limit order in the gap, often at its consequent encroachment. It fills only if price retraces that deep; if the retrace stops higher, there is no fill.
• Stop. At the structural low that the whole pattern depends on, usually the sweep low of the bullish leg. If that is too far for your account, reduce size or use micros (MNQ $2 a point, MES $5). Do not move the stop into the gap to make it cheaper.
• Targets. The leg’s high first, then the higher-timeframe draw on liquidity.

We do not publish hit rates for this or any other pattern. We know of no independent test of the Reaper, and any statistics quoted online should be treated as unverified.

What Is Still Unclear

• Must the gap be inverted? The name says “IFVG”, but the most widely quoted definition only says “a fair value gap” in the discount or premium of the leg. See the formation section above.
• Which leg? Notes say “the impulsive price leg” of the breaker. We read this as the leg that breaks structure, from the sweep extreme to the new extreme. Some traders measure the whole breaker range instead.
• Other interpretations. Some community threads, such as this July 2023 X thread, describe a “Reaper IFVG” built around the previous day’s range and the opening Judas swing. That goes well beyond the recorded definition, and we treat it as those authors’ own framework.

Frequently Asked Questions