The ICT Trading Concepts Desk researches, writes, and maintains every strategy guide, glossary entry, and case study published on this site. The desk works directly from Inner Circle Trader concepts and Smart Money Concepts, translating dense trading theory into structured, practical guides.
Coverage spans market structure, liquidity models, order blocks, fair value gaps, and the kill zone framework that anchors ICT execution timing. Each guide is drafted, checked against historical price data, and revised before publication.
Browse the desk's full catalog on the Blog, or start with the SMC Strategies and ICT Strategies collections.
12 articles in ICT · Show all
ICT
An IFVG (inverse fair value gap) is a fair value gap that price failed to respect: a candle body closes beyond its far edge and the zone flips to support or resistance. Learn how to mark it, read bullish and bearish inversions and trade the close or the retest.
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ICT
An order block (OB) is the last opposite candle before a move that breaks structure with a BOS or MSS. Learn how it forms, how to mark it from high to low with the wick, and how to trade the first return to the zone.
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ICT
A fake FVG is a fair value gap that prints as price reaches a higher timeframe POI or runs a liquidity level, then gets inversed. Learn how it forms, how to tell it from a real FVG, and how to trade the move after the trap.
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ICT
The New Day Opening Gap (NDOG) is the gap between the last trade before the 5:00 PM New York halt and the first trade at the 6:00 PM reopen. Learn how it forms, how to mark its top, bottom and CE, and how ICT uses it to support an idea built from other PD arrays.
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ICT
An Order Block (OB) is the last opposite-close candle, or series of candles, before a displacement that breaks market structure; it is marked with a single line at the open of the first candle in that series (or of the candle itself when there is only one), and when it holds, price continues in the same direction. A Breaker Block (BB) is an order block that failed: price first swept the liquidity beyond a prior low or high, then a candle body closed beyond the opposite swing, so the zone now works in the other direction; it is marked over the full range of its candle(s), wick to wick. A breaker block and order block can come from the very same candles, but the order block is a continuation level and the breaker block is a reversal zone.
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ICT
The ICT Venom Model is an intraday reversal setup that Michael J. Huddleston (ICT) taught in his 2025 Lecture Series. You mark the high and low of the 08:00–09:30 New York range as the reference levels, let your directional context set the expected side of the sweep, and wait for price to raid that side after the 09:30 open. The entries after confirmation come once price trades through the range high or low, a Venom candle closes beyond the liquidity it swept, a fair value gap forms on the way in and another on the way out, and a change in state of delivery (CISD) confirms the reversal. The aggressive entry is taken earlier, as price runs into the liquidity, before the setup is complete. The target is the opposite side of the range.
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ICT
A Fair Value Gap (FVG) is a three-candle price pattern where a large middle candle moves price so fast that the wicks of the first and third candles do not overlap. The empty space between those two wicks is the gap. In a bullish FVG it sits between the high of candle 1 and the low of candle 3. In a bearish FVG it sits between the low of candle 1 and the high of candle 3. Traders mark this zone because price often comes back to it, although it does not always do so.
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ICT
An ICT rejection block is the price zone left by the wick at a swing high or low, marked from the body edge to the wick extreme. Learn how it forms, how to mark it with one or several candles and how to confirm the revisit on a lower timeframe.
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ICT
An order block is the last opposing candle before a strong move, and a fair value gap (FVG) is the three-candle imbalance that the same move leaves behind. The order block marks where the move started. The FVG marks where price moved too fast inside the move. In a bullish setup the FVG sits above the bullish order block, and in a bearish setup it sits below the bearish order block, so on a pullback price reaches the FVG first. FVGs tend to hold in strong trends with shallow pullbacks, order blocks tend to matter more at reversals and in ranges, and the lower timeframe tells you which one is actually holding.
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SMC
A CHoCH (Change of Character) is the first break of market structure against the current trend. In an uptrend, it happens when price breaks below the most recent higher low. In a downtrend, it happens when price breaks above the most recent lower high. It is an early warning that the trend may be ending, not proof that a new trend has started.
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ICT
A failure to manipulate happens when price takes out a high or low but fails to form the reversal you would normally expect. Learn how to spot it, confirm it with candle closures and trade the continuation with a higher timeframe bias.
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ICT
A balanced price range (BPR) is the band where a bullish and a bearish fair value gap overlap: the newer gap sets the direction and only the shared band is traded. Learn how to mark it, filter strong setups and enter on the retest or at the 50% level.
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