ICT and Smart Money Concepts: the complete course

The ICT and SMC vocabulary: market structure, liquidity, order blocks, FVG and manipulation.

ICT trading, short for Inner Circle Trader, and Smart Money Concepts describe the same family of methods: reading a chart as the trace left by orders too large to fill at once. SMC trading is the version taught outside the original vocabulary, with the same ideas under different names.

It is neither a strategy nor an indicator. It is a reading grid, and it is learned in a specific order: market structure first, because everything else attaches to it, then liquidity, which explains why price goes hunting in certain places, and only then the entry zones, order block, fair value gap and inverse fair value gap.

The lessons below follow that order. Each one is free, with no account to create, and written to be read straight after the previous one.

What this course covers

  • Market structure: Dow theory applied to a chart, higher lows, the break of structure and the change of character (CHoCH), which is the exact point where a trend stops.
  • Liquidity: where the market goes to fill its orders, why stops pile up in the same places, and what the phrase smart money actually covers.
  • Points of interest: order block, breaker block, imbalance, fair value gap and its inverted form, the IFVG, which is the most argued-about entry in the whole ICT corpus.
  • Manipulation: the accumulation, manipulation, distribution pattern, often shortened to AMD, which describes in three phases what a session does before moving in its real direction.
  • The full vocabulary: BPR, CRT, SMT divergence, OTE, inducement, CVD. Acronyms that look frightening from a distance and cover simple ideas up close.

Who it is for, and in what order

If you are starting out, begin with market structure and skip nothing. Half the mistakes made on order blocks come from structure misread upstream, not from the order block itself.

If you already know the vocabulary, the structure and liquidity lesson is the one that adds the most: it explains the order-book mechanism behind the terms, which most ICT courses leave out.

ICT and Smart Money Concepts

15 lessons
ICT concepts: a first step into ICT trading What ICT trading and Smart Money Concepts actually cover, and the order in which they are learned. ICT concepts: a first step into ICT trading 10 min ICT and Smart Money Concepts Market structure: CHoCH, break of structure Dow theory, higher lows, and the exact point where a trend stops. Market structure: CHoCH, break of structure 14 min ICT and Smart Money Concepts Liquidity and smart money Where stops are stacked, why price goes to fetch them, and where to put yours. Liquidity and smart money 25 min ICT and Smart Money Concepts Order blocks, imbalance and large orders Why a very large order cannot fill just anywhere, and what that constraint leaves visible on your chart. Order blocks, imbalance and large orders 17 min ICT and Smart Money Concepts Liquidity sweep and liquidity grab The reserve of stops behind an obvious extreme, the pass that triggers it, and what separates a sweep from a real break. Liquidity sweep and liquidity grab 8 min ICT and Smart Money Concepts Displacement in forex trading The impulsive move that breaks structure and leaves a fair value gap, what it looks like, and the trap of seeing it everywhere. Displacement in forex trading 8 min ICT and Smart Money Concepts IFVG trading: the inverse fair value gap The hole an imbalance leaves, what it becomes when it fails, and the six ways the vocabulary writes it. IFVG trading: the inverse fair value gap 13 min ICT and Smart Money Concepts Accumulation manipulation distribution (PO3) The three-act sequence of a session, what it actually describes, and why it is so hard to apply live. Accumulation manipulation distribution (PO3) 10 min ICT and Smart Money Concepts Order blocks and breaker blocks The last opposing candle before a move, what it claims to mark, and what happens when it gives way. Order blocks and breaker blocks 12 min ICT and Smart Money Concepts BPR, CRT, SMT divergence and OTE Four acronyms sold to you after the zones, what each one describes, and the only one you can check on the spot. BPR, CRT, SMT divergence and OTE 11 min ICT and Smart Money Concepts ICT entry models: the FVG ICT entry Where to enter an imbalance once the zone is marked: the edge, the midpoint, the confirmation, and what each one costs. ICT entry models: the FVG ICT entry 6 min ICT and Smart Money Concepts ICT models and the ICT 2022 model What a recipe that combines the blocks in a fixed order really is, the five most taught, and what none of them settles. ICT models and the ICT 2022 model 7 min ICT and Smart Money Concepts ICT setups: turtle soup, silver bullet Turtle soup, judas swing, silver bullet, unicorn, MMXM: what each name covers, and which lessons it is built from. ICT setups: turtle soup, silver bullet 7 min ICT and Smart Money Concepts Trading sessions and killzones Why the hour changes what a level is worth, the three sessions that matter, and what killzones claim to add. Trading sessions and killzones 9 min ICT and Smart Money Concepts ICT daily bias and reference levels Deciding a direction before the open, from what, and what should make you change your mind mid-session. ICT daily bias and reference levels 7 min ICT and Smart Money Concepts