New ICT (Inner Circle Trader) students often have a slow learning curve because of all the terminology specific to this particular trading methodology. For that reason, we are working on creating a comprehensive glossary of terms and abbreviations to help new traders shorten their learning curve. Leave a comment if there is something missing you would like us to add.
We will continue adding to this as time goes on.
ICT Abbreviations
ADR – Average Daily Range
AMD – Accumulation, Manipulation, Distribution
ATR – Average True Range
BB – Breaker Block
BISI – Buy Side Imbalance Sell Side Inefficiency (a bullish fair value gap)
BMS – Break in Market Structure
BOS = Break of Structure
BSL – Buy Side Liquidity
CBDR – Central Bank Dealer Range
DOL – Draw on Liquidity
C.E. –
EQH – Equal Highs
EQL – Equal Lows
FVG – Fair Value Gap
HRLR – High Resistance Liquidity Run
HTF – Higher Time Frame
IOF – Institutional Order Flow
IOFED – Institutional Order Flow Entry Drill
IPDA – Interbank Price Delivery Algorithm
ITH – Intermediate Term High
ITL – Intermediate Term Low
KZ – Kill Zone
LTH – Long Term High
LTL – Long Term Low
LTF – Lower Time Frame
LRLR – Low Resistance Liquidity Run
MB – Mitigation Block
MMBM – Market Maker Buy Model
MMSM – Market Maker Sell Model
MOP – Midnight (EST) Opening Price
MSS – Market Structure Shift
MTH – Mean Threshold
MTM – Mean Threshold
NDOG – New Day Opening Gap
NWOG – New Week Opening Gap
OB – Order Block
OHLC – Open High Low Close
OSOK – One Shot One Kill
PDH – Previous Day’s High
PDL – Previous Day’s Low
PO3 – Power of Three
POI – Point of Interest
PWH – Previous Week’s High
PWL – Previous Week’s Low
SH – Stop Hunt
SIBI – Sell Side Imbalance Buy Side Inefficiency (a bearish fair value gap)
SMR – Smart Money Reversal
SMT – Smart Money Technique
SSL – Sell Side Liquidity
STH – Short-Term High
STL – Short-Term Low
VI – Volume Imbalance
ICT Glossary
Asian Range: The price range established during the Asian trading session, is often considered as a reference for potential market reversals or breakouts during other trading sessions.
Bridge Building: Identifying price levels you expect the market to move from and to.
Buy Liquidity: Areas with buy stops. There is liquidity above old highs and below old lows.
Clean Hi/Low: Basically double bottoms with nearly equal highs/lows. Stops tend to cluster around these.
Dealing Range: A price range created after sellside and buyside liquidity is taken. Use the dealing range to create a premium / discount array of price levels.
Displacement: A strong move in price that usually consists of 1 or more strong trend bars and often creates a fair value gap; imagine an elephant jumping into a kids pool. This is a sign of institutional buying and selling.
ICT (Inner Circle Trader): Refers to the trader Michael J. Huddleston and his methodology. He goes by the pseudonym ICT or Inner Circle Trader. ICT’s approach to trading focuses on the use of technical analysis, specifically emphasizing market structure, order flow, and the concept of “smart money”. He gained an online following in the early 2010s posting on babypips.com; he later created a website and mentorship group and later posted his content on Youtube for free. There is now a large number of traders that trade his methods and discuss their trades using terminology that is specific to ICT concepts.
Liquidity: Price levels where there are lots of stops/orders. Institutions need lots of liquidity to add or exit their large positions.
Liquidity Pool: Accumulation of orders or market participants providing liquidity.
Liquidity Void: A price zone characterized by a lack of significant liquidity, often targeted by institutional traders to manipulate prices.
London Session:
Market Maker: A financial institution or broker-dealer responsible for providing liquidity by quoting bid and ask prices for a financial instrument.
Market Manipulation: The deliberate act of influencing prices through large-scale trading activity to deceive or exploit other market participants.
Market Sentiment: Overall attitude or feeling of traders towards the market.
Midnight Open: The price at midnight EST.
New York Session: For forex, 7-10 am EST. For US stocks, 8:30-11 am EST.
NWOG – New Week Opening Gap.
Optimal Trade Entry (OTE) – A fibonacci retracment of 62-79%. If you exit at the swing high before the pullback with a stop at the 100% fib retracement, this trade entry will result in a Reward to Risk of around 2:1.
Order Block – An area of support/resistance. For a specific definition, see our article on ICT order blocks.
Silver Bullet Trade – A specific trade setup that occurs at certain times of the day. For the US stock market, the silver bullet setup occurs between 10-11 am EST and 2-3 pm EST.
Turtle Soup – A trade entry that is a type of stop run / failed breakout which creates a double top or bottom. The name is a reference to the famous ‘turtle traders’ who would take breakout trades.
VI – Volume Imbalance – An area of price inefficiency. It can be identified by consecutive candles with overlapping wicks.