ICT Lexicon

Breaker

A failed order block that flips from support to resistance or vice versa.

Buy Side Liquidity (BSL)

Stops above old highs targeted by institutions.

Consequent Encroachment

The 50% level of a Fair Value Gap or order block.

Displacement

A strong impulsive move away from an area, leaving a Fair Value Gap.

Fair Value Gap (FVG)

A three-candle formation where the first and third candle's wicks don't overlap, leaving an inefficiency in price.

IOF

Institutional Order Flow, the directional bias of smart money.

Inducement

A liquidity pool deliberately engineered to trap traders.

IPDA

Interbank Price Delivery Algorithm, ICT's theory on how banks deliver price.

Judas Swing

A false move at the open designed to trap retail traders before the real move.

Kill Zones

Specific high probability trading sessions: London, New York AM, New York PM.

Liquidity

Areas where stop losses are clustered, targeted by institutions before the real move.

Market Structure Shift (MSS)

A change in the prevailing trend direction.

Mitigation Block

A failed order block where price returns to mitigate the orders left behind.

NWOG

New Week Opening Gap, the gap between Friday's close and Sunday's open.

NDOG

New Day Opening Gap, the gap between the previous day's close and current day's open.

Order Block

The last opposing candle before a significant institutional move, representing areas where smart money placed large orders.

Optimal Trade Entry (OTE)

The 62–79% Fibonacci retracement zone used for high probability entries.

PD Array

Premium/Discount Array, a hierarchy of ICT tools used to identify entry points.

Power of 3

Accumulation, Manipulation, Distribution — the three phases of price delivery.

Propulsion Block

An order block that forms during a displacement move.

Quarterly Shifts

The 4 seasonal tendencies: January, April, July, October.

Reaper

ICT's model for trading end of day reversals.

Rejection Block

The wick of a candle that becomes support or resistance.

Running Flat

A consolidation pattern that appears to be ranging but is actually accumulating.

Silver Bullet

A specific ICT time-based trading model that runs from 3–4am, 10–11am, or 3–4pm EST.

SMT Divergence

Smart Money Technique, when correlated pairs fail to make the same high or low.

Sell Side Liquidity (SSL)

Stops below old lows targeted by institutions.

Sick Sister

A consolidation pattern where price forms equal highs or lows before a breakout.

Turtle Soup

A stop hunt pattern that reverses after taking out a previous high or low.

Volume Imbalance

Two candles where the bodies don't overlap, similar to an FVG but between bodies not wicks.