Condensed Playbook

The quick-reference playbook — the full read for every model, condensed to the decisions that get graded.

TIME → LIQUIDITY RAID → DISPLACEMENT + MSS → FVG → ENTRY ON RETRACE → TARGET OPPOSING LIQUIDITY
Liquidity — why price moves
  • : buy stops above old highs, equal highs, PDH/PWH, session highs. : sell stops below old lows, equal lows, PDL/PWL, session lows.
  • are magnets, not walls. Clean pools get run.
  • / turtle soup: wick through the pool + close back inside = manipulation done.
  • First question each session: what is the ? Which pool is price reaching for?
Fair Value Gap — the entry
  • 3-candle pattern. Bullish = gap between candle 1 high and candle 3 low around a strong middle candle. One-sided, inefficient delivery — the algorithm returns to rebalance it.
  • = 50% of the gap. Refined entries fill at CE.
  • Only FVGs born from after a raid matter. Random gaps in chop are noise.
  • Full through an FVG = it (support becomes resistance).
Displacement & MSS — the confirmation
  • Displacement: energetic one-directional candles, big bodies, leaving FVGs. Smart money's footprint.
  • MSS: displacement body-closes through the most recent opposing swing point after the raid. Wicks don't count.
  • Sweep without displacement = re-raid likely coming. No trade.
Time — killzones & macros (all ET)
WindowTimeUse
London KZ2:00–5:00aoften sets high/low of day
NY AM KZ8:30–11:00aprimary NQ window
Silver Bullet10:00–11:00araid → FVG only, strict
Lunch12:00–1:30pNO TRADES
PM session1:30–4:00pcontinuation / reversal
  • Midnight open (True Day Open) & 8:30 open: judas swings occur against the real direction relative to these opens.
  • Macros: 8:50–9:10 · 9:50–10:10 · 10:50–11:10 · 11:50–12:10 (lunch) · 3:15–3:45 (last hour) — 20-min algo bursts to/from liquidity. PM macro times vary by source; only the last-hour window is well corroborated.
Power of Three & Daily Bias
  • Every daily/session candle = Accumulation → Manipulation (judas) → Distribution. The model enters at the end of manipulation.
  • Bias: daily chart → nearest untapped pool or open daily FVG = the draw. Yesterday raided a low + displaced up ⇒ bullish until buy-side objective.
  • SMT: NQ makes lower low, ES doesn't (at your raid) = crack in correlation = elite confluence.
  • No clear bias ⇒ no trade. One setup a day is the job.
Silver Bullet — the window play
10:00–11:00 ET → RAID → DISPLACEMENT FVG IN-WINDOW → GAP ENTRY → OPPOSING POOL
  • Three windows exist (3–4a London, 10–11a NY AM, 2–3p PM); the trainer drills the NY AM hour.
  • Same anatomy as the core model — the difference is that the gap itself must print inside the window, and the FVG is the only entry taken.
  • Late-window trap: the identical picture after 11:00 is a chase. Skip it.
  • No-raid trap: a gap in the window with nothing swept first is displacement without a setup.
Unicorn — breaker + gap stacked
RAID (fat body = BREAKER) → DISPLACEMENT GAP STARTS INSIDE IT → ENTER THE OVERLAP
  • The raid candle's body becomes the breaker; the displacement FVG must overlap it. The stacked zone is the entry — the trainer marks the overlap midpoint.
  • Two independent reasons to return to one zone: rebalance the gap AND retest the broken block. That confluence is the whole grade.
  • No-overlap trap: breaker here, gap floating up there — two ordinary levels, no unicorn, no trade.
  • Stop beyond the raid extreme; target the opposing pool, as always.
Inversion FVG — the failed gap that flips
OLD GAP → RAID → BODY CLOSE THROUGH IT (INVERSION) → RETEST ENTRY → OLD EXTREME
  • A gap price body-closes through flips roles: failed bearish gap → support, failed bullish gap → resistance. Wicks invert nothing.
  • Highest-quality inversions come from the displacement off a raid — the trapped side fuels the move.
  • Entry on the retest from the far side, CE refined; stop beyond the raid wick.
  • Failed-inversion trap: a second body close back through the zone kills it. A failed inversion is a dead level — stand down.
Market Maker Model — the curve
CONSOLIDATION (ORIGIN) → ENGINEERED LEGS → RAID + DISPLACEMENT AT THE EXTREME → BACK TO ORIGIN
  • The consolidation sets original value; the markdown/markup legs engineer one side of the market; the reversal at the extreme completes the curve.
  • The reversal must confirm with the usual stack — raid + displacement + shift. Symmetry alone is context, never a trigger.
  • The target is the consolidation origin, exactly. Pause shelves from the way down get re-traded on the way back.
  • No-reversal trap: reaching the lows and drifting is not a buy model — the markdown can keep going.
SMT Divergence — the correlation crack
RAID ON NQ → CHECK ES → PAIR HELD? → DIVERGENCE + FVG = A+ ENTRY
  • At the raid, the correlated pair (ES) refusing to confirm the break is the signal: the sweep was engineered to collect stops, not real selling.
  • SMT is confirmation confluence — it upgrades a raid + displacement + FVG setup; it never replaces the sequence.
  • Check divergence exactly at the liquidity event. Elsewhere on the chart it is noise.
  • No-divergence trap: both breaking together = correlation intact = continuation risk. No crack, no edge.
Order Block — the last opposite candle
RAID → LAST OPPOSITE CANDLE (the block) → DISPLACEMENT → RETRACE TO MEAN THRESHOLD → CONTINUE
  • A bullish order block is the last down-close candle before an impulsive move up (bearish = last up-close before a move down). Mark its body, not its wick.
  • Displacement is the evidence the block exists — a strong, wide-bodied expansion away from the candle. No displacement, no block.
  • The mean threshold (50% of the body) is the entry — the most reactive part of the zone. Stop beyond the block’s far wick; target the opposing pool.
  • Body-close-through trap: a wick poke still holds, but a candle body closing through the mean threshold means the block is mitigated — it often flips into a breaker against you. Never trade a mitigated block in its original direction.
Breaker — the failed order block that flips
ORDER BLOCK → SWEEP LIQUIDITY BEYOND IT → BODY CLOSE THROUGH (FLIP) → RETEST → REVERSAL
  • A breaker only exists after a valid order block fails. A failed bearish OB becomes a bullish breaker (support); a failed bullish OB becomes a bearish breaker (resistance). Same level, polarity flipped.
  • The failure needs a liquidity sweep beyond the block plus a body close through it and a structure shift — that combination is what makes it a breaker and not just a broken level.
  • Enter on the retest of the flipped zone, but only with confluence (a reaction, an FVG, a lower-timeframe shift). Stop beyond the swept wick with buffer; target the opposing pool.
  • Mitigation trap: if the level is retested and respected with no sweep, it is a mitigation block — a continuation of the original direction, not a breaker. Trading it as a reversal is the most repeated breaker mistake.
  • Retest-fails trap: a real breaker can still fail on the retest — price closes straight through the zone. The retest is not an automatic entry.
Optimal Trade Entry — the 62–79% band
RAID (0%) → DISPLACEMENT LEG (100% at extreme) → RETRACE INTO 62–79% → ENTER 70.5% → TARGET
  • Fib the displacement leg — 0% at the leg start (the raid), 100% at the extreme. The OTE band is 62–79%, with 70.5% the sweet spot in the middle.
  • The band sits deeper than equilibrium (50%), so a long OTE is in discount and a short OTE is in premium — the golden rule holds by construction.
  • Stop just beyond the 100% origin. A body close through 100% breaks the read — the retracement has become a reversal.
  • An Order Block or FVG inside the band is A+ confluence — a "triple confluence" entry stronger than the fib alone.
  • Shallow-retrace trap: if price only pulls back to equilibrium and runs, it never reached your band — no fill, no trade.
Power of Three — the judas off the open
ACCUMULATION (range at open) → MANIPULATION (judas vs bias) → DISTRIBUTION (true move)
  • Every session runs Accumulation → Manipulation → Distribution. The model enters at the end of manipulation — the judas swing.
  • The midnight / session open is the true-day anchor. On a bullish day the judas dips below the open to raid sell-side; on a bearish day it spikes above. Trade the reversal, never the judas.
  • A valid judas round-trips: it sweeps liquidity the wrong way, then reverses with displacement and an MSS. Entry on the retrace into the gap; stop beyond the judas wick; target the opposing pool.
  • No-manipulation trap: price expands straight off the open with no judas — no manipulation, nothing to enter.
  • Judas-holds trap: a sweep of the open that keeps going was the real move, not a judas. Not every sweep reverses.
Change in State of Delivery (CISD)
SWEEP → BODY CLOSE THROUGH THE LAST-RUN OPEN → THE RUN BECOMES AN OB → RETRACE → ENTER
  • The reference is the open of the last opposing candle run into the extreme — not a swing point. A bullish CISD closes a body above the open of the down-run that pushed into the low.
  • Body close only — a wick through the run open does not qualify (the most common misread). Because the run open sits inside the leg, a CISD fires earlier than an MSS — an early scout trigger, noisier than the swing-based confirmation.
  • Sequence is sweep → CISD → entry. The closed-through run becomes an order block; don’t enter on the CISD candle — wait for the retrace into the gap/OB. Stop beyond the swept wick.
  • Wick-only trap: a wick pokes the run open, body closes back below — no CISD. No-sweep trap: a CISD with nothing raided first is a substantially weaker signal.
First-Presented FVG (Opening Range)
9:30 OPEN → RAID → FIRST POST-OPEN GAP → QUALIFY (CLOCK · SIDE · DEFENSE) → CE ENTRY
  • The session’s first displacement gap after the 9:30 open is its reference imbalance. The clock is part of the definition — a gap printed pre-open is overnight delivery, not the first presented gap.
  • Qualification has three gates: printed after the open, on the correct side of the range (discount for longs, premium for shorts), and defended on the retrace. Fail any gate and the gap is disqualified — stand down.
  • Entry at the gap’s midpoint (CE) on the retrace; stop beyond the raid extreme that fueled the displacement; target the opposing pool.
  • Pre-session trap: perfect anatomy, wrong clock. Wrong-side trap: a long’s first gap in the premium half. Instant-inversion trap: the gap body-closed through right after forming — a dead zone, not a discount.
Opening Range Gap (ORG)
PRIOR CLOSE → GAP AT THE OPEN → SWEEP THE SHELF → BODY CLOSE THRU GAP CE + FVG → TARGET THE FILL
  • The gap between the prior close and today’s open is an inefficiency; its 50% midpoint (CE) is the opening range’s primary reaction level. Gap-down favors the buy-side rebalance toward the fill; gap-up the sell-side.
  • Reaction, not touch: the entry needs the opening shelf swept, then displacement that body-closes through the gap CE and leaves an entry gap. Stop beyond the swept shelf; first target the fill at the prior close.
  • No-reaction trap: overlapping candles drifting across the CE — no footprint, no trade. Pass-through trap: price body-closes through the entire gap without pausing; the level became fuel, not a setup.
  • Timing: the opening range (~9:30–10:30 ET); the 8:30 data window often supplies the open’s impulse.
Venom (NY-open range model)
9:30–10:00 RANGE → 10:00–10:30 SWEEP · BODY BACK INSIDE → FIRST GAP + MSS → CE ENTRY → OPPOSING EXTREME
  • Phase 1 (9:30–10:00): the opening range builds; its high and low are the session’s two pools. Phase 2 (10:00–10:30): displacement sweeps one extreme — wick beyond it — and the body closes back inside. That close is the defining rule; without it the move is a breakout you’d be fading.
  • The displacement leaves the session’s first gap and the structure shift. Phase 3: retrace into that gap at its midpoint (CE) is the entry — commonly near the ~10:10 macro. Stop beyond the sweep wick.
  • First target: the opposing range extreme. Sweep the low → deliver to the high, and vice versa. Runners look to session liquidity beyond.
  • Breakout trap: the taking candle closes beyond the extreme — no trade. Clock trap: the sweep prints outside 10:00–10:30 — the window is part of the model. No-retrace trap: the checklist completes but the CE entry never prints — let it go.
Entry checklist & management
#Gate
1Inside killzone (8:30–11:00 primary)
2Daily bias / draw defined
3Pool raided against bias
4Displacement + body-close MSS
5Clean FVG in the displacement leg
6Limit at FVG / CE
7Stop beyond raid wick
8Target = opposing pool, ≥2R
  • Price may re-enter the FVG twice — normal. Invalidation = body close through it or raid-extreme violated.
  • Breakeven only after a new short-term swing forms in your favor. Partials at each pool.
  • One setup per session. Lunch = flat. News in 15 min = stand down.
Prop / funded account rules
  • Risk 0.5% per trade (max 1%). Size = risk ÷ (stop points × $/pt). MNQ = $2/pt.
  • Daily stop: 2 losses or −1.5% → platform closed.
  • Trailing drawdown: take mechanical partials at the first pool to raise your floor.
  • MNQ through evaluation; NQ only after payout consistency. Flat through tier-1 news.
  • 2–4 A+ setups a week passes any eval. Boredom is the edge.
How to mark a chart (order of operations)
  • 1 · Dashed lines on liquidity first (old/equal highs & lows, labeled BSL/SSL)
  • 2 · Vertical lines at midnight, 8:30, 9:30
  • 3 · Circle the raid wick
  • 4 · Mark the MSS swing at the body close
  • 5 · Rectangle on the FVG, extended right (CE at 50%)
  • 6 · Projection line to the opposing pool — "that's the draw"
  • Repeat 15m → 5m → 1m. Never lead with indicators, trendlines, or patterns.
Educational drills on synthetic data. Not financial advice — sim the models until the checklist is boring before risking eval fees.