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 closing 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.