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Market Maker Buy and Sell Model (MMXM) in plain words

The market maker model describes a move from consolidation to a sweep and a reversal. See the stages in plain English and how the M9 scanner model uses them.

2026-11-09 · 4 min read · by the ICC Charts team (how we write)

The market maker model, often written MMXM, is a story about how a larger move can unfold. Price rests in a range, runs to take liquidity, then reverses and travels to the other side. It is more of a map than a recipe. This article explains the stages in simple words and shows how the M9 model on ICC Charts uses a simplified version.

The idea in one line

Large orders need someone to take the other side. Price tends to move toward places where many orders wait, such as the stops above a high or below a low. After those orders are filled, price can turn. This is the same logic as in buy-side and sell-side liquidity.

The stages of a sell model

In a market maker sell model, price first rises, then falls. The stages are:

  1. Original consolidation. Price moves sideways. Highs and lows build up with resting stops.
  2. Run to the high. Price pushes above the range and takes buy-side liquidity. It can look like a breakout.
  3. Smart money reversal. The push fails. A strong move down breaks structure.
  4. Distribution down. Price travels lower toward sell-side liquidity, often leaving gaps on the way.

The buy model is the same picture turned upside down: a sweep of the lows, a reversal, and a move up.

Where the reversal shows itself

The turn is the part you can act on. These are the signs worth looking for:

How the M9 model works on ICC Charts

The scanner lists this model as M9 Market Maker Buy/Sell (simplified). "Simplified" is important: it does not try to draw the whole textbook curve. In our own words, it looks for the key part, a raid on liquidity followed by a reversal and a gap to enter in.

It works on the 1-hour chart, looks back a long way for the raid, and asks for a larger reward than risk. Because it is built for bigger swings, it gives fewer signals than a short-term model such as the Silver Bullet. You can see its rules on the models page and turn it on or off in the scanner. If you are new to the scanner, read the model scanner guide first.

A worked example

The numbers below are made up to show the order of events on a 1-hour chart.

  1. Price trades between 200 and 210 for several days. Equal highs form near 210.
  2. The higher time frame is bearish, so a sell model is the one to study.
  3. Price spikes to 212, takes the stops above 210, and closes back inside the range.
  4. A strong candle then breaks the last swing low and leaves a gap between 207 and 208.
  5. You wait for a return into the gap. The stop goes above the 212 high.
  6. The first area to watch is the sell-side liquidity under 200.

If price instead held above 212 and made new highs, the story would be a real breakout and the model would not apply.

Limits to keep in mind

Practise it

Open the ICC Charts terminal and switch on Liquidity, Market Structure and FVG / IFVG. Look for a range with obvious equal highs or lows, then follow what happened after the first sweep. Write down five examples, including the ones that failed. That journal will teach you more than a picture of the perfect curve.

Education only. ICC Charts is not affiliated with Inner Circle Trader (Michael J. Huddleston); these ideas are explained in our own words. No model works every time. Trading involves risk; practise on a demo account first.

Try it on a live chart

Open ICC Charts in your browser, free, with the ICT and VSA layers and the model scanner. Or practise on past charts in the free Chart Challenge game.

Open it on the chart → Play the chart game

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