Markets do not move evenly through the day. Most of the volume, and most clean moves, come in a few windows when the big financial centres are open. ICT calls the best of these windows killzones. All times below are in New York time, which is how ICC Charts shows sessions.
The main windows
- Asian session (about 20:00 to 00:00): usually quiet. Its high and low form a range that later sessions often sweep.
- London killzone (about 02:00 to 05:00): the first big push of the day, often a fake move first.
- New York AM killzone (about 07:00 to 10:00): the busiest window, with US news at 08:30.
- New York lunch (about 12:00 to 13:00): slow and choppy; many traders stay out.
- New York PM (about 13:30 to 16:00): a second, smaller chance.
The Silver Bullet hours
The Silver Bullet is a one-hour window inside each killzone: 03:00 to 04:00, 10:00 to 11:00 and 14:00 to 15:00 New York time. The model looks for a liquidity sweep followed by a fair value gap inside that hour.
Why timing helps
- Moves inside a killzone have more volume behind them, so patterns are more reliable.
- Outside them, the same pattern is more likely to be noise.
- Knowing the window keeps you from trading the whole day and over-trading.
Daylight saving time
Because these windows are set in New York time, they move against UTC twice a year. ICC Charts always calculates them in New York time, and the clocks strip (UTC, UTC+3, UTC+5) helps you see what that is in your own time.
Sessions in ICC Charts
Switch on the Sessions & Killzones layer in the terminal to shade each window on the chart, and set a session alert to be told when one opens. Several models only mark setups inside their killzone.
Education only. Trading involves risk; practise on a demo account first.
Open ICC Charts in your browser, free, with the ICT and VSA layers and the model scanner.
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