OTE zone (optimal trade entry)

The formula

The band between 0.62 and 0.79 of a move's retracement.

How to read it

Where ICT methods look for their entry inside a pullback, rather than at the very start of the return.

Its value is not entry precision, it is the geometry of the trade: entering deep into the retracement brings the stop closer to the invalidation point and pushes the target further, so it improves the ratio without changing the method. It is an R setting, not a prediction.

The classic mistake

Treating it as a signal. Price entering the OTE zone says nothing on its own: you need an independent reason to think the move resumes, and the zone only decides where to sit if that reason exists. Without it, you are buying a retracement that is simply a reversal underway.