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Free, plain-English guides to the ICT and smart money concepts we teach, with simple diagrams. Start with any of them.
What is a fair value gap (FVG)?
The three-candle pattern behind one of the most-used ICT concepts: how to identify it with a strict rule, why traders watch it, and where beginners go wrong.
Read the article →Order blocks explained
A tighter definition of one of the most loosely used ideas in smart money trading, with the checks that separate a real order block from a random candle.
Read the article →Liquidity sweeps and stop hunts
Why price so often spikes through an obvious level and then reverses, where the orders behind that move sit, and how to tell a sweep from a genuine breakout.
Read the article →How to pass a prop firm challenge: the rules that matter
Most challenges end on a rule, not a bad read. Static, end-of-day and intraday trailing drawdown on the same trades, daily loss limits, consistency and payout rules, quoted from the firms themselves.
Read the article →Break of structure vs change of character (BOS vs CHoCH)
The two market structure labels every smart money chart uses, stepped through on an interactive chart: what each break means, which swing counts, and why a wick is not a break.
Read the article →SMT divergence explained
When two markets that normally move together disagree at a key high or low. Bullish and bearish SMT side by side on ES and NQ, inverse pairs like EUR/USD and DXY, and where the idea breaks down.
Read the article →Volume profile explained
How a volume profile is built, what the POC, value area, HVNs and LVNs mean, a value-area calculation by hand, and why the data behind the profile matters.
Read the article →Order flow trading explained
Market and limit orders, the order book, how CME matches trades, footprint charts, delta and imbalances, worked through on illustrative data, plus the limits of what order flow shows.
Read the article →How prop firms work
The evaluation, what "funded" usually means, where the money goes, a worked cost example with published prices, and a checklist for vetting a firm before you pay.
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Education only. Not financial advice. Trading foreign exchange, indices, futures and commodities carries a high level of risk and may not be suitable for everyone. The concepts here describe how some traders read charts; they do not predict what price will do.