VOID’S ICT HANDBOOK This handbook is aimed to get you up to speeds of any ICT veteran with all the esssential information. As I always preach, make your trading simple, I made this simple handbook for everyone W W W . V O I D M A R K E T S . C O -1- VOID MARKETS After handling over 400k$ of my investor’s funds strictly trading ICT concepts for over 2 years, I have come to a certain knowledge level that only the real raw live markets can teach you. Experience is the greatest teacher of all. As I was pondering one day what to do with all this knowledge, I decided to write a small E-book that will help all the novice traders from falling victim to other online guru’s marketing gimmick. In this handbook, you have your basics, your framework and psychology to create your own trading models. WWW.VOIDMARKETS.CO -2- CONTENTS 1 2 3 4 5 ICT TERMINOLOGY ALGORITHMIC ORDER FLOW ELEMENTS OF A TRADE SETUP PSYCHOLOGY & RISK MANAGEMENT HOW TO GET FUNDED -3- 1 C H A P T E R ICT TERMINOLOGY W W W . V O I D M A R K E T S . C O -4- ICT TERMINOLOGY A-Z 1. Liquidity 2. Short term high/low 3. Premium 4. Discount 5. Dealing Range 6. Stop Hunt 7. AMD 8. Power of Three 9. Opening Prices 10. Previous session Ranges 11. Market Maker Model 12. Return to Fair Valuation 13. PD arrays -5- 1. LIQUIDITY Seek the Liquidity or be the Liquidity Liquidity are defined by pending orders like buy stops, sell stops, sell limit and buy limit. These orders are placed by retail traders to either get in a trade or get out of a trade to protect their equity. As interbank traders, We anticipate price moves either targeting a liquidity pool or reversing from a liquidity pool. There's buy stops present over all the fractal highs and sell stops present below all the fractal lows. This is like an universal law of ICT. Any Short term high or low could be used as a liquidity pool. Mainly, Previous session high and low are very effective. Buystops are present above all short term high as liquidity -6- 2.STH AND STL All Short term highs or lows consists of liquidity A short term high is defined by a 3 candle pattern. for example, in case of a swing low, There should be a candle available to the left of the swing low candle and a candle available to the right of the swing low candle. First candle shouldn't go below the swing low candle and the third candle shouldn't go below the swing low candle. These STHs could be used for either mapping out advanced market structure by larry williams or used as a stop hunt to fuel a particular price run. Swing Low 3 candle pattern 1 3 2 -7- 3. PREMIUM Anything above the current market price is considered as premium. Any PD arrays which is available above the current market price will be considered as a premium PD array. These arrays can be used for anticipating the origin of sell offs which is probably a good shorting opportunity if you blend it with time. There is also another type of premium which is range premium. From the range high to range low, anything above the 50% Equilibrium will be considered as a range premium. Current Market Price -8- 4. DISCOUNT Anything below the current market price is considered as premium. Any PD arrays which is available below the current market price will be considered as a discount PD array. These arrays can be used for anticipating the origin of huge bullish moves which is probably a good longing opportunity if you blend it with time. There is also another type of discount which is range discount. From the range high to range low, anything below the 50% Equilibrium will be considered as a range discount. Current Market Price Discount -9- 5. DEALING RANGE If you can spot them use them, if not, Don't worry Dealing range is a specific signature in price which we can used to decide range premiums and range highs.It always has three parts that define a dealing range. Trapped Liquidity and opposing liquidity and a price run to take them both. Accumulation is followed by inducing early buyers/sellers to enter way before the stop hunt takes place. Price then attacks the trapped liquidity followed by a smart money reversal. This drives the price to attack the opposing liquidity. After this, Price seeks equilibrium of the said range and then continue with the other opposing liquidity. Stop hunt Smart Money Reversal Return Back to Range Trapped Liquidity After returning back to the range, Exiting range is the high probability trade direction Accumulation Opposing Stop Run Exit Range -10- 6. STOP HUNT Stop Hunt is the price move above any short term high or short term low which is facilitated by the market maker to absorb the buystops or sellstops present to fuel a move against those stops. For example, if you are in a short position, Most logical place for you to keep a stop loss is above a fractal high.we call this as buystops. The manipulation is absorbing all those buystops to cut out all the profitable early sellers and running in the same direction later. These kind of stop runs will take out two types of traders. The early sellers who will have their SL above the high and the breakout artists who buy once the high get broken and traded through. Opposing Liquidity Both early buyers and breakout artists are trapped during the stop hunt Sell Stops Stop Hunt Stop Hunt Early Buyers & Breakout artists -11- 7. AMD Distribution always doesn't mean selling off. During AMD, both sell offs and buy runs, will be considered as distributing phase... Distribution means getting rid of the position you have accumulated... The market maker will essentially accumulate positions before the real move happens and manipulate the price in the opposite direction facilitating them an extensive chance of getting in by providing counterparty liquidity for retail traders. After this manipulation, The market maker will change the price in the intended original direction. Accumulation Distribution MAnipulation -12- 8.POWER OF 3 Tricking people in the wrong direction All the candles in across all the timeframes have power of three. But as ICT traders we look in mainly two timeframes which is weekly and daily for weekly range expansion and daily range expansion. For a bearish candle, Price moving from the open to the high formation will be considered as the judas swing of that candle (PO3). High PO3 Judas swing Judas Swing Open Combining this with Market Maker Models and AMD framework, you can catch trades with a lot of precision cause you will know the intended reason for the opposite move against your bias. Instead of being blindsided, you will anticipate this move to form HOW or HOD Close Low -13- 9.OPENING PRICES You can expect a judas swing around open prices There are quite a different open prices for different assets that we trade. The main concept nehing opening prices is to expect power of three concept to take place around the opening price.So whenever a market open, we anticipate an opposing price run called the judas swing. so anything above the opening price will be considered as premium and anything below opening price will be considered as discount It's an interesting concept cause we blend two important concepts in one. Time and price. We look for price to open, manipulate (Judas swing) and then go in our favor Different opening prices NY Midnight Open Frankfurt Open London Open NY Open News Open NYSE Open - 00:00 hours (Forex and Indices} - 02:00 hours (Forex) - 03:00 hours (Forex) - 07:00 hours (Forex) - 08:30 hours (Indices) - 09:30 hours (Indices) -14- 10.PREVIOUS SESSION RANGES Previous day range and previous session range are the holy grail Previous session high and low has a lot of liquidity on both sides. More often than not, we tend to sweep one after the other in time. Meaning, after we get a sweep of asian high, we could price to rally towards asian low as a target. This will provide us with the framework of our manipulation model. The session timings are these 19:00 to 00:00 hours 03:00 to 05:00 hours 08:30 to 12:00 hours 13:30 to 16:30 hours - Asian Range London Range NY am session NY pm session Asian High Previous session Previous session liquidity for trade liquidity for trade framework framework Asian Low -15- 11.MARKET MAKER MODEL MMXM is not a pattern rather it's how algo books price Market Maker Model is the constant movement of price from discount to premium and then premium to discount again. It consists of Original Consolidation, Low Risk Buy, Low Risk Sell and Smart Money Reversal. It has both buyside of the curve and sellside of the curve. Combining this with the PO3 concept will gain lot of precision. The last leg to attack the original consolidation is called the Low Hanging Fruit objective. Smart Money Reversal Key Level LRS LRS LRB LHF Objective Sellside Liquidity Original Consolidation -16- 12. RETURN TO FAIR VALUE For any pre defined range, There will be a equilibrium we can use to work with. When the price is exhausted from the expansion leg, there will be a certain degree of reversal from an opposing PD arrays to cause a retracement leg up into the EQ. This move from the price exhaustion to the EQ will be referred as the return to fair value. This move is usually intended to rebalance an old imbalance. The move from the low into EQ will be the return to fair valuation Defined range with Equilibrium -17- 13. PD ARRAYS PD arrays are key levels in price which we use to key off our entries and exit. This can act as true support or resistance. But most SMC courses and other retail methods fail becuase of only one thing. They will have too many POIs to look for in a range and forget about the underlying order flow. As ICT traders, we don’t have the need to worry about which PD arrays to use, we couple the concept of time and order flow to tell us which PD arrays to use. Old High/Low Rejection Block Bearish Orderblock Fiar Value Gap Hierarchy of PD arrays Liquidity Void Bearish Breaker Mitigation Block EQUILIBRIUM Mitigation Block Bullish Breaker Pro Tip- We always trade the reaction from the PD arrays and not the PD array itself Liquidity Void Fiar Value Gap Bullish Orderblock Rejection Block Old High/Low -18- 2 C H A P T E R ALGORITHMIC ORDER FLOW W W W . V O I D M A R K E T S . C O -19- ALGORITHMIC ORDER FLOW The key to understanding the Interbank Price Delivery Algorithm is to understand what takes the price of an asset class from point A to point B. There are two characteristics to identify a bullish order flow Up close candles getting broken and pierced through Down close candle support price higher Point B Upclose candles getting pierced through Down close candles supporting price Upclose candles getting pierced through Down close candles supporting price Upclose candles getting pierced through Down close candles supporting price Upclose candles getting pierced through Upclose candles getting pierced through Down close candles supporting price Down close candles supporting price Point A -20- When you are identifying the bullish price delivery from point A to point B, then you have to look for these specific price delivery signatures which happens in price all the time. Respecting discount PD arrays and disrespecting premium PD arrays can also a major indication of bullish order flow. In a overall bullish order flow , we have to be aware of the premium PD arrays that could cause a short term change in state of delivery, but you also always have to be aware of the underlying overall bullish OF and try not to get slaughtered by changing order flow until the terminus is hit aka (Target). -21- STATE OF DELIVERY Once you nailed down how to identify order flow, you have to understand a basic price delivery signature called state of delivery. State of delivery is the price delivery signature where it continuously delivers towards one side of the liquidity as the main objective. Buyside Liquidity Buyside Liquidity Buyside Liquidity From Point A to Point B, The IPDA has only reached for buyside liquidity offering buyside state of delivery -22- This picture represents the price where it offered the market a continuous buyside state of delivery. Why identifying this is important? Only then you will be able to identify when the change in state of delivery happens and the market starts to provide sellside state of delivery. Change in state of delivery BSL CiSD turns the state of delivery into sellside BSL Buyside Liquidity -23- So essentially when price changes from buyside state of delivery into a sellside state of delivery, that’s called bearish change in state of delivery. Coupling this with the parent order flow, you will always know which side of the market you are currently on and where you are in the market in a macro perspective. So in a nutshell, during the parent bullish order flow, there will be multiple change in state of delivery in the LTF to account for the retracement legs in the market after the exhaustion of the expansion leg. You have to understand that, these change in state of delivery only happen in key level (PD Arrays) and also opportunities arise only when a change in state of delivery happens so that we can align ourselves with the underlying parent order flow. -24- This is also a big giveaway when the retracement phase starts and the when the next expansion phase starts. This is your confirmation if you may say so. Order Flow is extremely fractal and works across all timeframes. Aligning your trade setups in the parent order flow direction is a must, but what TF you consider as your parent order flow TF depends on the type of trading you do like intraday, short term trading etcetera.. -25- 3 C H A P T E R ELEMENTS OF A TRADE SETUP W W W . V O I D M A R K E T S . C O -26- ELEMENTS OF A TRADE SETUP THE NARRATIVE This element of the trade setup is the framework about price in higher TF where you have a solid context behind anticipating that price is going to run from Point A to Point B in x amount of time (Anticipation of weekly templates) This step should have a high reasoning behind why you are anticipating that price is going to run from Point A to Point B Point B (Premium) Buyside Liquidity The Narrative Point A (Discount) -27- Concepts to be blended in are PD Arrays, Defining ranges, Weekly template anticipation, Weekly PO3 Once Price reaches Point A, You wait for the next element of the trade setup Best Timeframes - 8h and daily THE IDEA Buyside Liquidity THE IDEA Aligning with parent orderflow Change in state of delivery THE NARRATIVE +OB (4h) -28- THE IDEA The context for this element is to wait for the state of delivery to align with the parent orderflow… Until then you can follow the order flow in the LTF to reach into Point A in the narrative Once this happens, we can easily hunt for intraday setups in the direction of the parent order flow. The change in state of delivery is the most important moving part in this element. After that, we can use concepts like dealing ranges, PD arrays to base our day trading model ! Concepts to be blended in are CiSD, PD Arrays, Dealing ranges, Return to fair valuation market maker model Best Timeframes - 1h, 2h, 4h -29- THE DELIVERY Buyside Liquidity THE DELIVERY THE NARRATIVE Aligning with The IDEA Change in state of delivery Manipulation Judas swing I like to explain a small analogy here for you to understand my thought process… If you have a land on two sides (Entry and Exit) and water in between them (Empty price action) Then build a bridge (Placing a trade) -30- THE DELIVERY This is the last element of the trade setup in which we will be taking our entries and exit. As always, you will wait for the change in state of delivery after manipulation to enter… Keep your entry and exit defined and build a bridge between them by placing an order Concepts to be blended in are CiSD, PD Arrays, Dealing ranges, Return to fair valuation, IOFED, Algorithmic SnR and MMXM Best Timeframes - 5m, 15m -31- 4 C H A P T E R PSYCHOLOGY & RISK MANAGEMENT W W W . V O I D M A R K E T S . C O -32- PSYCHOLOGY Before I go into psychology topic, I want to advise you to do one more thing. That’s Journaling. This is the KEY folks. You start journaling your thoughts before every session you trade and then record what happened and how you performed during the session. This will help with positive reinforcement for your brain. This results in more confidence in your model, patience to wait for setups and not get lost during a losing streak ! I use calendar view in notion for my journaling -33- PSYCHOLOGY “The best traders can put on a trade without the slightest bit of hesitation or conflict, and just as freely and without hesitation or conflict, admit it is not working. Thev can get out of the trade even with a loss - and doing so doesn't resonate the slightest bit of emotional discomfort. In other words, the risks inherent in trading do not cause the best traders to lose their discipline. focus, or sense of confidence.” “Ninety-five percent of the trading errors you are likely to make - causing the money to just evaporate before your eye will Stem from your attitudes about being wrong, losing money, missing out and leaving money on the table.” “You won’t be confident in the face of constant uncertainty. The hard, cold reality of trading is that every trade has an uncertain outcome. Unless you learn to completely accept the possibility of an uncertain outcome, you will try either consciously or unconsciously to avoid any possibility you define as painful. in the process, you will subject yourself to any number of self-generated, costly errors” ~Mark Douglas -34- PSYCHOLOGY So unless you understand that every trade has an uncertain outcome and no single trade will have a 100% guaranteed winning potential, you will be making a lot of errors while hoping that this particular trade should be a winner. It could be, but you have to look at the bigger picture. A series of trade set above 100 and the probability of your model delivering the edge. When this understanding happens, the trader can eliminate the fear of losing, fear of being wrong and can execute the edge without hesitating after losses. Other problems novice traders usually faces are the fear of missing out ! For this, you should journaling like I mentioned above. This gives you confidence about your model delivering repeatedly week after week. That will give you a confidence boost that this shit repeats. but, You won’t be convinced that I said so, You won’t be convinced that ICT said so, you will be convinced because you have your journal as a proof. You also have to understand that no trade days are far better than losing days! You still won without trading it cause you protected your equity. -36- PSYCHOLOGY You have to get this inside your brain “ I will only execute my A+ setups and if it’s not a hell yes, then it’s a no” “ I will only execute my A+ setups and if it’s not a hell yes, then it’s a no” “ I will only execute my A+ setups and if it’s not a hell yes, then it’s a no” Emotions play a crucial role in trading. we humans are emotional beings… so if we try to suppress our emotions, it will be a disaster. instead try recording your emotion patterns in your journal before and after each trade. then you will know when your emotions play, you can interpret the root cause of that emotion instead of caving in Pro tip- Always treat your demo while practicing as your real account ! Follow all the rules you will follow in a real account. Draft a trading plan and continuously execute in your demo account. This will help with your practice. -37- RISK MANAGEMENT Risk Management is one of things which is very crucial if you want to make trading your life career and make it a reliable income source. The #1 rule in trading is to preserve capital. So defining your risk exposure per trade, plays an important role in preserving your capital Predefine your risk exposure per trade, per day and per week. This should be included in your trade plan in BOLD letters and should be followed at all times without fail. Acknowledge your risk in any given trade and submit to the market’s probability factor ! Always bear in mind that once you place a trade, you absolutely can lose all that money in that particular trade. Since single trade’s outcome is random, you have to define your risk each trade and continuously execute your edge to be profitable ! Advised risk per trade will be 1% For prop firm, it could be 0.5% -38- 5 C H A P T E R HOW TO GET FUNDED W W W . V O I D M A R K E T S . C O -39- GETTING CONSISTENT Use the rule of ONE 1 1 1 1 1 1 Model Session Asset class Trade per day max Percent risk per trade or 2 RR trades What this will do to your trading is bring some consistency to your everyday routine so that you are not looking at thousand different things at thousand different places. This makes you concentrated and focused on a single objective in mind. It will make your data collection easy and organized! Get a small challenge first, pass that challenge and extract some profits out of it Then buy a big challenge and work from there ! -40- YOU’RE ALL DONE! I hope you all like my free ICT handbook which is just 50% of my knowledge and personal model that I could share with you today ! But I have a personal coaching program called VOID INCUBATOR PROGRAM where I will be sitting down with you 1 on 1 and coach you to be in the top 1% of successful and profitable traders. It comes with a trading plan specially curated according to your lifestyle and your needs. Also in month 4 there is live trading with me where I walk your hand while dissecting intraday price action. If you want to take your trading career from 0-100 in less than 120 days, Dm the word “GROW” in my dm for more details. Your life will never be the same I promise you!
