# ICT Power of Three (AMD) and the Judas Swing · DT Academy > ICT power of three (AMD) and the Judas swing as a rule you can test live: a quiet open, a false move past the midnight open, a close back, the run. [Back to ICT Concepts](https://www.thedtterminal.com/academy/courses/ict-concepts) Lesson 10Power of three, AMD and the Judas swing Chapters done # Power of three, AMD and the Judas swing Lesson 10 · 5 min read · By DT Terminal Read a day as accumulation, manipulation and distribution, and write the Judas swing as a rule you can apply while it happens. Unlock the full lesson in the app Worked examples, the quiz and the interactive tools are in the app. Free account. [Continue in the app, free](https://www.thedtterminal.com/login?signup=true&redirect=%2Fjournal%2Facademy%2Fict-power-of-three) Chapter 1 of 6 ## One candle, three phases **Power of three** (PO3) reads a daily candle, or a session or a weekly one, as three phases in a row: - **Accumulation**: a quiet range near the open. - **Manipulation**: a move against the day's eventual direction that takes liquidity. - **Distribution**: the main move. Traders shorten it to **AMD**. On a bullish day the low tends to form early and the close near the high; a bearish day is the mirror. The idea overlaps with Wyckoff's much older accumulation, distribution, spring and upthrust. Bullish day one daily candle, and the path that made it Chapter 2 of 6 ## The reference: the midnight open ICT treats the price at 00:00 New York as **the day's "true" open**. On a bullish PO3 day the manipulation leg trades below it and the distribution finishes above it. On a bearish day, the reverse. It **follows US daylight saving**: 05:00 UTC in US winter, 04:00 UTC in US summer. Set your chart to New York time, or convert once per season. The windows around it come from [The ICT clock: sessions and killzones](https://www.thedtterminal.com/academy/ict-sessions-and-killzones). **The open is a line, not a signal.** Price above or below it tells you which side of the day you are on, **not which side the day will finish**. Chapter 3 of 6 ## The Judas swing The **Judas swing** is the manipulation leg at a session open: a false move away from the midnight or session open that **runs stops, then reverses**. Traders mark the obvious levels it could reach for: the Asian range, or the quiet range after midnight. It is a sweep in the sense of [Liquidity the ICT way](https://www.thedtterminal.com/academy/ict-liquidity): a wick beyond a known low, then a close back. If price closes beyond and keeps going, it was **a run, not a Judas swing**. ICT describes the move as deliberate. Nothing public shows who is behind it, so this lesson only uses what you can see: the level, the wick and the close. Chapter 4 of 6 ## Bullish and bearish AMD days Here are three ways a day can open, bullish and bearish. **Only the top row** is power of three as written. The middle row is a perfectly normal day the model has nothing to say about, and the bottom row is the one that traps a buyer. Power of three ### AMD days, and the days that only look like them - Quiet range (A) - The open Bullish day low early, close near the high Bearish day high early, close near the low Textbook AMD quiet open, a false move, then the run Trend from the open no false move: the low is the open The false move kept going no close back over the open **Cover the right half of each cell.** At the moment price first trades under the open, the top row and the bottom row look the same. Schematic candles, not market data. A, M and D mark accumulation, manipulation and distribution. That is the **hindsight problem**. Every finished daily candle can be told as PO3, so a pile of finished charts proves nothing. The test is whether you can name the manipulation leg **while it is happening**. Chapter 5 of 6 ## Write it as a rule A testable Judas swing, on `M15` and New York time: price **trades below the midnight open** and below the low of the quiet range from 00:00 to 02:00, then an `M15` candle **closes back above the midnight open** before 05:00. **Both parts**, or it is not one. Worked example ### Example 01: `EURUSD` M15: the rule says Judas swing The worked example, with every number walked through, is in the app. [Continue in the app, free](https://www.thedtterminal.com/login?signup=true&redirect=%2Fjournal%2Facademy%2Fict-power-of-three%3Fsection%3Dwrite-it-as-a-rule%23write-it-as-a-rule) Free account **Go deeper** In Example 01 the drop reached 1.08440, and the 03:45 candle closed at 1.08702, just back above the open. Chapter 6 of 6 ## When the rule says no Same rule, same start. It never fires. Worked example ### Example 02: `GBPUSD` M15: the same start, no Judas swing The worked example, with every number walked through, is in the app. [Continue in the app, free](https://www.thedtterminal.com/login?signup=true&redirect=%2Fjournal%2Facademy%2Fict-power-of-three%3Fsection%3Dwhen-it-says-no%23when-it-says-no) Free account Call it bar by bar in the backtester Replay twenty days of one pair on `M15` from 00:00 New York. At 05:00, call Judas or not, then play on. Tag the trades that used it Tag trades after a Judas swing `Judas`, and drops that missed the rule `No reclaim`. **Go deeper** In the backtester, check afterwards how many Judas days closed above the open. In the Trade Log, filter by each tag after a month and compare the two in R. Quick review ## Check yourself Quick review · 0 of 0 [All lessons in ICT Concepts](https://www.thedtterminal.com/academy/courses/ict-concepts) [Previous](https://www.thedtterminal.com/academy/ict-daily-bias) ## Daily bias and the higher-timeframe draw Lesson 09 · 5 min read [Next in ICT Concepts](https://www.thedtterminal.com/academy/ict-turtle-soup) ## Turtle soup: fading a liquidity sweep Lesson 11 · 6 min read ## Try it on your own account Connect a broker and DT Terminal verifies every trade against it. Free to start. [Start free](https://www.thedtterminal.com/login?signup=true&from=academy&entry=closing_card&redirect=%2Fjournal%2Facademy) [Back to DT Academy](https://www.thedtterminal.com/academy) DT Academy is education, not financial advice. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell any instrument. Trading carries a high risk of losing money, and past results, examples and backtests do not guarantee future results. 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