Speaker A
welcome to ICT for Dummies episode. Yeah, um, anyways guys, oh yeah, oh we're flexing [__] time.
A beginner-focused ICT trading video explaining kill zones and the five main trading sessions, and why focusing on New York AM session is the best approach for ES and NQ futures.
Key Takeaways
- New York AM session (9:30-11:00am ET) offers the best volatility and cleanest price action for ES and NQ futures.
- Beginners should master a single trading session instead of trading across all sessions.
- Overnight moves that are very large can signal poor price action for the New York AM session.
- Waiting about five minutes after news releases before trading can help avoid chaotic initial price moves.
What the video covers
- Introduces 'kill zones' as the best times to trade ES (S&P 500) and NQ (Nasdaq) futures, all in Eastern Standard Time.
- Outlines five sessions: Asia (8pm-12am ET), London (roughly 2am-5am ET with more volatility), New York AM, New York lunch hour, and New York PM.
- New York AM session (9:30am-11:00am ET) is identified as the period with the most volatility, clean price action, and consistent results.
- New York lunch hour is described as choppy and low-volume, while Asia and London sessions are generally less volatile than NY AM.
- The 8:30am news release time is highlighted as technically pre-market, with the stock market opening at 9:30am.
- Beginners are advised to master one session rather than trade every session, since trading more does not equal making more money.
- Traders with schedule conflicts are advised to focus on London or NY PM sessions if NY AM is unavailable, while still mastering a single session.
- Large overnight moves in Asia or London sessions are presented as a warning sign that NY AM price action may be poor that day.
- The video recommends waiting roughly five minutes after news releases before executing trades.
- Discipline is emphasized: taking only a few quality trades and closing charts for the day is presented as what successful traders do.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction
- 01:07What Are Kill Zones and Trading Hours
- 02:14London Session and Session Overview
- 03:31New York AM vs. New York PM Sessions
- 04:31Choosing a Session When Schedules Conflict
- 05:40Overnight Moves and Session Interactions
- 06:40News Releases and the NY AM Window
- 07:58Trading Around Red Folder News
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
with trading a lot today we're going to be going over the five most significant sessions Blake okay so what I have here is kill zones so what kill zones are are going to be the best times to be trading
Speaker A
This is going to be a pretty simple session. This is foundational knowledge that you should 100% know, and it's going to help you with trading a lot.
Speaker A
if you're going to be trading Forex there are different times but since we are just trading es Futures and NQ Futures these are the times that we want to be paying attention to now we have five different sessions here all are
Speaker A
Today we're going to be going over the five most significant sessions.
Speaker A
during this time same thing goes for London session you're going to get a little bit more volatility from 2:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. and then New York am.
Speaker A
Blake, okay, so what I have here is kill zones. So what kill zones are, are going to be the best times to be trading in the market. Since we are trading the NASDAQ, we are trading Nasdaq futures, and we also are trading ES, the S&P 500 futures. This is all going to be in Eastern Standard Time.
Speaker A
is released so 8:30 is also still technically pre-market and 9:30 a.m. is actually when the Stock Market opens so when the New York Stock Exchange opens is at 9:30 a.m. that is that opening Bell and that is going to be when a lot
Speaker A
Now for Forex, kill zones are different, so please note that if you're going to be trading Forex, there are different times. But since we are just trading ES futures and NQ futures, these are the times that we want to be paying attention to.
Speaker A
volatility there's not going to be a lot of people trading during this time and just like the name and Tails like people are typically on lunch breaks there's not a lot of Traders during this time directly correlating to the fact that
Speaker A
Now we have five different sessions here, all are very important. We have Asia session, which starts at 8:00 p.m. Eastern to 12:00 a.m. We then have London session. Asia session does tend to be a lot less volatile and choppier, because not a lot of New York traders are trading during this time.
Speaker A
PM session might have more volatility than New York a session but most days New York am session is going to be your best bet at finding just the best opportunities in the market since the most amount of Traders are going to be
Speaker A
Same thing goes for London session. You're going to get a little bit more volatility from 2:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m., and then New York AM session is going to be when the market has the most volatility, and it's also going to have the cleanest price action, because this is when the New York traders are trading during this time.
Speaker A
highly highly suggest just focusing on New York am session you should not be Trad during AIA session London session lunch hour now these times are significant because they are going to be really high probable liquidity pools which we get into later so still knowing
Speaker A
Now, 8:30 a.m. is going to be when news is released, so 8:30 is also still technically pre-market, and 9:30 a.m. is actually when the stock market opens. So when the New York Stock Exchange opens is at 9:30 a.m. That is that opening bell, and that is going to be when a lot of volatility kicks in. But 8:30 a.m. still is part of the kill zone time.
Speaker A
effective way of mastering a strategy because the thing is people are heavily mistaken a lot of beginner Traders often think that they need to trade every single session but that will negatively affect your results please please take my word for
Speaker A
You also have New York lunch hour and New York PM session. New York lunch hour obviously is not going to have a lot of volatility. There's not going to be a lot of people trading during this time, and just like the name entails, people are typically on lunch breaks. There's not a lot of traders during this time, directly correlating to the fact that there's not going to be a lot of volatility or volume.
Speaker A
market some of you may have some sort of inconvenience that is just overlapping with New York am session whether it is work school or whatever it may be and therefore you can't trade New York am session and maybe your only option is
Speaker A
Then you have New York PM session. This typically does have a bit more volatility and volume, but not as significant as New York AM session. For the most part, on some days New York PM session might have more volatility than New York AM session, but most days New York AM session is going to be your best bet at finding the best opportunities in the market, since the most amount of traders are going to be trading during New York AM session. This is going to have the most consistent price action, and it's going to generate the most consistent results with our strategy and with ICT concepts in general.
Speaker A
not going and not experimenting with every other session cuz it's going to screw you over like Patrick was saying more trading does not equal more money getting made in the market I always see beginner Traders also like asking us
Speaker A
Yeah, guys, for beginner traders I highly, highly suggest just focusing on New York AM session. You should not be trading during Asia session. London session and lunch hour now, these times are significant because they are going to be really high-probability liquidity pools, which we get into later. So still knowing these times is very, very important.
Speaker A
cleanest trades the cleanest price action the best volatility you're also going to build yourself a lot of discipline by only taking you know one or two trades and then closing your charts for the day because in reality that's what the best Traders do they
Speaker A
Despite the five prominent sessions we have marked out in front of us, I can't emphasize it enough: focus on mastering one. That is the most effective way to becoming profitable. That is the most effective way of mastering a strategy, because the thing is, people are heavily mistaken. A lot of beginner traders often think that they need to trade every single session, but that will negatively affect your results. Please, please take my word for this, and other traders will tell you the same thing: master one session. That is how you will understand your strategy best, that is how you will master your strategy best, and that is how you will consistently see the best results in the market.
Speaker A
to looking at the charts all the time that doesn't equate to Good hours for screen time yeah you need to understand that it gets to a point where you start seeing diminishing returns um with your your screen time right if you're just
Speaker A
Some of you may have some sort of inconvenience that is just overlapping with New York AM session, whether it is work, school, or whatever it may be, and therefore you can't trade New York AM session, and maybe your only option is London session or New York PM session. That's fine. Just know that, obviously, New York AM session is going to be the best in general, but if your only option is, for example, London session, just make sure you're mastering London session and not going and experimenting with every other session, because it's going to screw you over. Like Patrick was saying, more trading does not equal more money made in the market.
Speaker A
as much as you think despite the fact that it may feel like you're learning by looking at all these different sessions the reality is that it is not as effective as you may think like you don't want to be a slave to the charts
Speaker A
I always see beginner traders also asking us, why don't you trade every second of the day? Does that mean you can just make the most amount of money? No. By focusing on only one session, not only are you going to be getting the cleanest trades, the cleanest price action, and the best volatility, you're also going to build yourself a lot of discipline by only taking, you know, one or two trades and then closing your charts for the day. Because in reality, that's what the best traders do. They take one or two trades a day and they are done.
Speaker A
stuff like that is what actually helps you improve just some general knowledge is that since Asia session and London session are typically far less volatile than am session that is because it is typically saving most of volatility for
Speaker A
You guys do not need to be trading every single session. You do not need to be looking at every single session. Also, screen time in general does not equate to looking at the charts all the time. That doesn't equate to good hours for screen time. Yeah, you need to understand that it gets to a point where you start seeing diminishing returns with your screen time. If you're just spending your entire day looking at every single session, you trade New York AM session, you take a couple trades, and then you look at New York lunch hour, and then you look at New York PM session, you're not really learning as much as you think. Despite the fact that it may feel like you're learning by looking at all these different sessions, the reality is that it is not as effective as you may think. You don't want to be a slave to the charts. You don't want to spend your entire day looking at them. And if you want to just practice mastering a session, then you can go ahead and backtest, go over 30 days of New York AM session price action. Stuff like that is what actually helps you improve.
Speaker A
will generate bad price action for am session this doesn't happen too often but you should be able to identify when it does and it should be an easy sign for you to tell yourself okay I probably shouldn't trade today because we had a
Speaker A
Just some general knowledge: since Asia session and London session are typically far less volatile than AM session, that is because it is typically saving most of its volatility for New York AM session. However, there are times where you will see Asia session dump or pump hundreds of points, and when you see this, it's typically a sign not to trade AM session. These overnight moves that are extremely large usually will generate bad price action for AM session. This doesn't happen too often, but you should be able to identify when it does, and it should be an easy sign for you to tell yourself: okay, I probably shouldn't trade today, because we had a huge overnight move. This pretty much goes for every single session. For example, let's say New York AM session is super, super clean, like we get a really large move taking out some prominent buy-side or sell-side liquidity. Well, then you can expect that New York lunch hour will be a lot choppier and a lot slower.
Speaker A
liquidity well then you can expect that New York lunch hour to then be a lot choppier and a lot slower now we're going to go over some examples of how sessions move and how it may impact a different session okay guys guys so I
Speaker A
Now we're going to go over some examples of how sessions move and how it may impact a different session. Okay guys, so I use this indicator called ICT kill zones and pivots. You can go up here, click indicators, and I do not use a lot of indicators. This one is super useful. It's by Trade for Op, and it basically marks out every single session. As you can see here, it marks out Asia session from 8:00 to 12:00 a.m., then marks out London session from 2:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m., and then New York AM from 8:30 to 11:00. Now, you guys can pause the video and screenshot if you want these exact indicator settings. Also, the reason you're seeing that in the indicator settings, 8:30 is not included in New York AM session, is just because we don't typically trade pre-market, so we just started
Speaker A
out every single session as you can see here marks out Agia session from 8:00 to 12:00 a.m. then marks out London session from 2:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. and then New York a.m. from 8:30 to 11: now you guys
Speaker A
can pause the video screenshot if you want these exact indicator settings also the reason you're seeing that in the indicator settings 8:30 is not included in New York game session is just because because we don't typically trade pre-market um so we just started at 9:30
Speaker A
but if you want to include pre-market you absolutely can we just like to start off the New York am. when the New York Stock Exchange actually opens so as you guys can see here when is price action the most volatile when do we get the
Speaker A
best movement well it's obviously going to be during New York a.m. session right and that's going to be from 9:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and then after that we typically have a lot choppier a lot slower price action and it's not the
Speaker A
best as you can see you have also Asia session and London session the market it sure is moving but is not nearly as significant as what you're seeing in New York am session now since these are kill zones times we still will have pretty
Speaker A
significant moves for example we did go for around 200 points in the overnight session but the moves just aren't going to be as clean and they're not going to happen as fast like when you're trading New York amp session your take profits
Speaker A
are most likely going to hit a lot faster versus when you're trading London session you're going to have to wait a lot longer uh and here we have one final example just for good measure as you can see on the left you have Asia session
Speaker A
right the range is not really that big London session once again also just not that big and then as soon as you get that New York am session at 8:30 we also have newo here so you can see that
Speaker A
extremely volatile candle we're going to show you how to identify news real quick but then you can see new y ex session opens up and we have a lot of volatility getting pumped into the markets that's at 930 candle and yeah it's a lot of
Speaker A
movement that's a lot of [ __ ] movement if you're new to trading you're probably wondering what was that candle and like Patrick is saying it's a news candle so we're going to get into news and how to know when this news is going
Speaker A
to be released okay so this website is called forexfactory.com so forexfactory is going to tell you when news is released you're going to want to go over to the top right of this bar right here this is your filters so pretty much the only two
Speaker A
folders that you want to be focusing on is red folder and orange folder News yellow folder does not really do anything orange folder also really does not do anything but there's times when orange folder could so it's always good
Speaker A
to be just aware of that and the currency you just want to click USD if you're just training indices and if you're trading Forex then well you want to be clicking all of these but since we're just trading indices just focus on
Speaker A
USD and then event types you select all I want to change this for them cuz oh you're right Chihuahua time what the [ __ ] is that what the [ __ ] is Chihuahua time okay so this is all of the news for
Speaker A
this week of February as you can see we have news today at 10:00 a.m. so Powell is going to be speaking you do not want to be trading when news is released okay I would give yourself like a 5 minute
Speaker A
time frame window for from when news is released I would wait about 5 minutes um after news is released before you start executing trades just because even though that news candle may be at 8:30 or maybe at 10:00 a.m. right those
Speaker A
couple minutes right after that news candle are also going to be super super volatile what and before it's going to be really really choppy like Blake said so usually like the five minutes before news gets released are going to be like
Speaker A
super choppy and price will just Wick around everywhere news gets released huge freaking candle pumps into the market you you typically don't know which direction it's going to go so avoid being in a trade before that and then of course a couple minutes after
Speaker A
news you're still going to be there's still going to be a lot of volatility in the market just kind of finishing off that news candle so wait about 5 10ish minutes before you execute this will just help you avoid getting chopped out
Speaker A
of a trade so really the main news events that you guys want to be focusing on is CPI so CPI and PPI it's typically on a Wednesday or Thursday or Thursday or Friday this is happens once a month
Speaker A
and it always happens at 8:30 a.m. eastern you again you do not want to be trading during this time you want to be trading after that news is released and I want you guys to know also that it is
Speaker A
okay to be trading on days when there is red folder News it's actually going to be a lot better and a lot more volatility in the market a lot cleaner price action when news is released because a lot of Traders are going to be
Speaker A
trading there's going to be more volume now for these days you might want to be sizing down because the candles are going to be a lot bigger versus you know Days Like Mondays where we typically don't have any news the candles are
Speaker A
going to be a lot smaller so you're going to be able to put on more lot size put on more risk also note that one of these super volatile news days is going to be NFP non-farm employment change and
Speaker A
that's going to release on the first Friday of every month I this is considerably like one of the most volatile days so definitely make sure you're risking down on a day like NFP and also know that before a day like NFP
Speaker A
price action typically won't be as good think back about how we were talking about with sessions when we were saying a lot of the volatility saved for New York am session and therefore Asian London won't be as volatile think about
Speaker A
that sort of with news right if you have NFP releasing on Friday Thursday typically won't have a lot of volatility in the market because most Traders are waiting for NFP to be released before going about the markets and once again
Speaker A
to reiterate how what Blake was saying before your two most significant things to look at are just red and orange folder News orange folder typically doesn't do much but it is still really important to be worried about it because
Speaker A
uh sometimes it can generate like a 100 Point candle um so just definitely something to pay attention to we also said make sure your currency is on USD right uh you can see that in the currency spot right there since you are
Speaker A
trading the NQ Andes which is the NASDAQ futures and S&P 500 futures you really only care about USD fomc you also want to be paying attention to so fomc happens from 2:30 to 2:30 p.m. how will come on stage and there will be a
Speaker A
statement and there will also be come on stage like that's just mad weird he will he will come on stage I got so many H texting that's crazy so po will speak and then there will be a statement and
Speaker A
then there will be a press conference going over basically what he just said and that is again from 2: to 2:30 p.m.
Speaker A
so typically on fomc the New York am session will be not very good price action so you typically don't want to be trading really at all on fomc it's going to be pretty hard I do not suggest trading fomc days for beginners at all
Speaker A
and just avoiding that day in general but on these days it is actually okay to be trading like up until 400 p.m.
Speaker A
because there's going to be a lot of volatility in the market and again am session won't be that clean PM session will be clean now going back to our liquidity video we will have a lot of liquidity but it just won't get taken
Speaker A
during am session and that's basically just bad price action right because for example here like we were saying if there's going to be the News That's released and this day was NFP as you can see we just left a lot of liquidity we
Speaker A
weren't taking it we were just leaving these swing highs leaving these swing lows until finally news is released and then it just takes out all that liquidity new released you know how to speak English I didn't say it like that
Speaker A
like news is released so guys just remember the most important ref holders to look out for is going to be CPI PPI fomc NFP anytime Powell speaks and that's pretty much it I mean those are definitely the most significant ones but
Speaker A
any red folder you know just avoid being in a trade before then uh and just give it a bit of time after releasees a trade but yeah thank you guys so much for watching ICT for dummies episode 6 um and yeah if there's one thing
Speaker A
you're going to take away from this is that your job should be to master one session screen time does not mean trading every single [ __ ] session on the planet yeah make sure to like subscribe comment let me know what
Speaker A
country you're in drop that in the comments let us know and um yeah Boys Follow the socials much love peace out boys
Topics:ICTkill zonestrading sessionsES futuresNQ futuresNew York AM sessionday tradingliquiditybeginner tradingmarket volatility
