The Silver Bullet
Lesson 13 · 5 min read · By DT Terminal
One time-boxed model in three one-hour New York windows: map both sides, then a sweep and a fair value gap inside the hour, or no trade.
Unlock the full lesson in the app
Worked examples, the quiz and the interactive tools are in the app. Free account.
One hour, one setup
The Silver Bullet is a time-boxed ICT model, popularised in ICT's content in the early 2020s. It runs in three one-hour windows, New York time:
| Window | New York | UTC, US winter | UTC, US summer |
|---|---|---|---|
| London | 03:00 to 04:00 | 08:00 to 09:00 | 07:00 to 08:00 |
| New York AM | 10:00 to 11:00 | 15:00 to 16:00 | 14:00 to 15:00 |
| New York PM | 14:00 to 15:00 | 19:00 to 20:00 | 18:00 to 19:00 |
The UK changes its clocks on different dates, so for two or three weeks a year London opens an hour earlier against New York. The windows stay on the New York clock. The clock itself is covered in The ICT clock: sessions and killzones.
Before the window: map both sides
Before the hour starts, mark the liquidity on both sides of price: the nearest old highs and lows, the session's high and low, and the previous day high and low. You do not pick a side yet. The window decides which side gets taken.
The target is already on the chart: if price sweeps the low side, the high side is the draw, and the reverse. The pools come from Liquidity the ICT way.
Inside the window: sweep, shift, gap
Inside the hour, the model asks for these, in order:
- A sweep of one side, or a structure shift.
- A move that leaves a fair value gap, and the gap forms inside the window.
- Entry at the gap, stop beyond the swing the sweep made, target the liquidity on the other side.
The entry mechanics are the ones from Day 16, and the gap is graded as in Fair value gaps the ICT way.
Valid or not
Three things can follow a sweep inside the window. Only one of them is a trade.
The Silver Bullet
A sweep in the window, and what has to come next
- The one hour window
- Fair value gap
- Old low or high
Bullish
an old low swept, a gap up
Bearish
an old high swept, a gap down
Valid
sweep, then a gap inside the hour
Gap too late
the gap forms after the window: no trade
No gap
a sweep, but nothing to enter on: no trade
On the chart: a valid window
Worked example
Example 01: NAS100 M5: a valid setup in the 10:00 window
The worked example, with every number walked through, is in the app.
On the chart: a gap too late
Worked example
Example 02: EURUSD M5: a sweep in the 03:00 window, a gap too late
The worked example, with every number walked through, is in the app.
Test the windows, don't trust them
No peer-reviewed study tests the Silver Bullet. Some sites call the 10:00 to 11:00 window the most consistent; that is opinion, not evidence. The model is useful because it is strict enough to test: a time, a sequence, and a clear no.
Replay sixty windows in the backtester
M5. Log every valid setup and every skip, with the time the gap formed.Write the hour as Trading Rules
Go deeper
In each replayed session, stop at the start of the hour to mark both sides, then play the hour bar by bar.
Check yourself
Quick review · 0 of 0