ICT glossary: FVG, order block, BOS, OTE and 50 more terms

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Market structure

Swing high / swing low: A candle whose high is above the candles on both sides (a swing high), or whose low is below them (a swing low). It is only known once the candles on its right have closed.Market structure layer
Market structureمارکیٹ اسٹرکچر · मार्केट स्ट्रक्चर: The pattern of swing highs and lows: higher highs and higher lows in an uptrend, lower highs and lower lows in a downtrend.Article Practise the next move
Break of structure (BOS): A candle body closes beyond the last swing in the direction of the trend: the trend continues.BOS vs MSS Layer
Market structure shift (MSS): A candle body closes beyond the last swing against the trend: the first sign the direction may be changing.BOS vs MSS Layer
Change of character (CHoCH): The name smart money concepts (SMC) courses use for the first break against the trend. ICC Charts labels the same idea MSS.SMC (Urdu)
Displacement: A strong, fast candle: its body is large compared with recent candles and fills most of its range. Displacement often leaves a fair value gap behind.Displacement layer
Higher timeframe (HTF): A longer chart (for example 4-hour or daily) used to pick the direction before looking for an entry on a shorter one.Daily bias

Liquidity

Liquidityلیکویڈیٹی · लिक्विडिटी: Resting orders, mostly stop losses, that sit above swing highs and below swing lows. Price is often drawn to these levels.Article Layer
Buy-side liquidity (BSL): Liquidity above swing highs: stops of sellers and buy orders of breakout traders.Article
Sell-side liquidity (SSL): Liquidity below swing lows: stops of buyers and sell orders of breakout traders.Article
Equal highs / equal lows (EQH / EQL): Two or more swing highs (or lows) at almost the same price. They gather many stops in one place.Layer
Liquidity sweep (stop hunt)اسٹاپ ہنٹ · स्टॉप हंट: Price trades beyond a high or low and quickly closes back on the original side, taking the stops there.Urdu article Practise sweeps
Liquidity run: Price trades beyond a level and stays there: the liquidity was taken and price accepted the new area, unlike a sweep.Article
Turtle soup: A trade against a false breakout: price sweeps an old high or low and reverses.Article
Judas swing: An early move of a session in the wrong direction that takes liquidity before the real move starts.Article
Draw on liquidity (DOL): The pool of liquidity price is most likely heading to next, such as an old high, low or gap.Article

Gaps and imbalances

Fair value gap (FVG)فیئر ویلیو گیپ · फेयर वैल्यू गैप: A three-candle gap: the first candle's wick and the third candle's wick do not overlap, leaving space the middle candle moved through quickly.Article Layer Practise FVGs
BISI (buy-side imbalance, sell-side inefficiency): A bullish fair value gap: the first candle's high is below the third candle's low.FVG article
SIBI (sell-side imbalance, buy-side inefficiency): A bearish fair value gap: the first candle's low is above the third candle's high.FVG article
Consequent encroachment (CE): The middle (50%) of a fair value gap. Many traders watch it as the key level inside the gap.FVG layer
Inversion fair value gap (IFVG): A fair value gap that a candle closed through. It can then act from the other side, like a broken support becoming resistance.FVG layer
Balanced price range (BPR): Where a bullish and a bearish fair value gap overlap. The overlap is treated as one strong zone.FVG article
Volume imbalance (VI): Two candles whose bodies do not overlap while their wicks do: a small gap between the bodies.Layer

Blocks

Order block (OB)آرڈر بلاک · ऑर्डर ब्लॉक: The last opposite candle before a strong move that breaks structure: the last down candle before a move up (bullish), or the last up candle before a move down (bearish).Article Layer Practise OBs
Mean threshold (MT): The middle (50%) of an order block candle's body. A close beyond it weakens the block.Layer
Breaker blockبریکر بلاک · ब्रेकर ब्लॉक: An order block that failed after its leg had swept liquidity. Price closed through it, and it can now act from the other side.Article
Mitigation block: An order block that failed without a liquidity sweep before it. Like a breaker it may act from the other side, but it is usually seen as weaker.Layer
Rejection block: A swing high or low with a long wick; the zone runs from the candle body to the wick tip.
PD array (premium / discount array): The family of zones ICT traders use for entries and targets: fair value gaps, order blocks, breakers, liquidity and more, judged by whether they sit in premium or discount.Premium and discount

Price zones

Dealing range: The range between the latest swing high and swing low that price trades in.Layer
Equilibrium (EQ): The 50% level of the dealing range.Layer
Premiumپریمیم · प्रीमियम: The upper half of the dealing range: expensive, where sellers look for shorts.Article
Discountڈسکاؤنٹ · डिस्काउंट: The lower half of the dealing range: cheap, where buyers look for longs.Article
Optimal trade entry (OTE): A 62% to 79% pull-back of a strong move, with 70.5% as the sweet spot.Article Layer
IPDA ranges: The highest high and lowest low of the last 20, 40 and 60 trading days, watched as large pools of liquidity.Layer
Previous day high / low (PDH / PDL): Yesterday's high and low, common targets and sweep levels.Key levels layer
Previous week high / low (PWH / PWL): Last week's high and low.Key levels layer
Standard deviation projections (SD): The height of a reference range (the Asian range or the CBDR) added 1, 2, 2.5 or 4 times above its high and below its low to find possible targets.Layer

Time

Killzoneکِل زون · किलज़ोन: A window of the day, in New York time, when big moves are most common: Asian 20:00-00:00, London 02:00-05:00, New York AM 07:00-10:00, London close 10:00-12:00, New York PM 13:30-16:00.Article Layer Live clock
Silver Bullet: A one-hour window (03:00, 10:00 or 14:00 New York time) in which traders look for a sweep followed by a fair value gap entry.Article
Macro: A short window of about 20-30 minutes (for example 09:50-10:10 New York time) in which price often makes a quick move to a target.Sessions layer
Asian range: The high and low made between 20:00 and 00:00 New York time; London often sweeps one side of it.Layer
Central bank dealers range (CBDR): The range between 14:00 and 20:00 New York time on the previous evening, used for projections.Layer
Midnight open: The price at 00:00 New York time. Price below it is in discount for the day, above it in premium.Key levels layer
True open: The open of the second 90-minute quarter of a session, used as the session's reference price.Quarters layer
Quarterly theory: Dividing time into four parts (a day into four sessions, a session into four 90-minute quarters) to read where price is in its cycle.Layer
New week opening gap (NWOG): The gap between Friday's close and the Sunday open.Article Layer
New day opening gap (NDOG): The gap between the previous day's close and the 18:00 New York open.Article Layer
Opening range gap (ORG): The gap between the 16:15 New York close and the next 09:30 open, mostly on indices.Layer

Bias and models

Daily biasڈیلی بائس · डेली बायस: Your expected direction for the day, worked out before the open from structure, premium / discount and liquidity.Article Layer
Power of 3 (AMD): A day (or a candle) in three parts: accumulation (a quiet range), manipulation (a false move) and distribution (the real move).Article
SMT divergence: Two related markets disagree at a swing: one makes a new high or low, the other does not (for example gold and silver).Article Layer
Unicorn model: An entry where a breaker block and a fair value gap overlap.Article
Smart money concepts (SMC): A way of reading charts that tries to follow where large players place orders, built mostly on ICT's teaching.Urdu article Free course

Risk and sizing

Stop loss (SL)اسٹاپ لاس · स्टॉप लॉस: An order that closes a losing trade at a set price. In ICT setups it usually sits beyond the swept high or low, or beyond the zone.Lot size calculator
Risk to reward (R:R): How far the target is compared with the stop. A 1:3 trade risks 1 to make 3.Risk reward calculator
Pip: A small unit of price movement: 0.0001 on most currency pairs. Gold and indices are easier to count in price points.Pip value calculator
Lot sizeلاٹ سائز · लॉट साइज़: The size of a trade. On most brokers 1 lot of gold is 100 ounces, so a 1 dollar move is 100 dollars per lot.Lot size calculator Gold lot size (Urdu)

ICC Charts is not affiliated with Inner Circle Trader (Michael J. Huddleston); the definitions are our own words. Trading with leverage carries a high risk of losing money; this is education, not financial advice.

ICT and smart money terms, in plain words