# Power of three and the Judas swing: a strategy to learn and test | DT Academy > Read the day as range, false move, then the real move, and trade the turn. [Strategy Library](https://www.thedtterminal.com/academy/strategies) ICT # Power of three and the Judas swing Michael J. Huddleston (ICT) reads a day as three phases: a quiet range near the open (accumulation), a move against the day's direction that takes liquidity (manipulation), and the main move (distribution). The Judas swing is that false move at a session open. You trade the turn back once the false move fails. Advanced Forex majors, index futures London and New York opens M5, M15 [Use this strategy](https://www.thedtterminal.com/login?signup=true&from=academy&entry=strategy_use&redirect=%2Fjournal%2Facademy%2Fstrategies%2Fict_power_of_three) [Practice it](https://www.thedtterminal.com/login?signup=true&from=academy&entry=strategy_practice&redirect=%2Fjournal%2Facademy%2Fstrategies%2Fict_power_of_three) Example 01 ### Power of three and the Judas swing on a chart EURUSD · M15 Judas swing range, false move, turn Midnight open: 1.0851Entry: 1.0854Stop: 1.0826Target, previous day high: 1.0874Sample candles, not market data Price dipped under the early range first, then closed back above the midnight open before 05:00. The stop sits under the low of the false move. ### The rules Setup Mark the midnight open (00:00 New York time) and the range from 00:00 to 02:00 Have a written bias for the day from the higher timeframe Entry For a bullish day: price trades below the midnight open and the 00:00 to 02:00 low (the Judas swing) Enter once an M15 candle closes back above the midnight open before 05:00 New York time (mirror it for a bearish day) Stop Beyond the low (or high) of the Judas swing Target The liquidity on the other side, such as the previous day high, in the direction of your bias Manage Take no new entry after your cut-off time ### Common mistakes - Treating it as a daily law. Plenty of days trend from the open with no false move at all. - Naming phases afterwards. Any finished day can be described in three phases. The test is spotting the false move while it happens. - No written bias. Without a bias first, every early move can be called the Judas swing. ### When it's off - No close back above the midnight open by 05:00 means no trade - Skip days that open and trend with no false move ### Words to know Power of three Reads a daily (or session or weekly) candle as three phases: accumulation, a quiet range near the open; manipulation, a move against the day's eventual direction that takes liquidity; and distribution, the main move. On a bullish day the low tends to form early and the close near the high. Judas swing The false move at a session open that runs stops, then reverses. Academy's testable version (M15, New York time): price trades below the midnight open and the 00:00 to 02:00 range low, then an M15 candle closes back above the midnight open before 05:00 (mirror for bearish). Liquidity sweep Price trades beyond an obvious high or low, fills the orders resting there, and closes back inside. Academy's test is a wick beyond the level with the same candle's body closing back inside; a body close beyond is a real break, and a sweep alone reverses nothing. ICT's loose use of "turtle soup" means this. Previous day and week highs and lows The previous day's high and low (PDH and PDL) and the previous week's (PWH and PWL), used as levels where stops are likely to rest. Academy's ICT course runs the day midnight to midnight New York time; many brokers close the day at 17:00 New York, which gives different levels. Midnight open ICT's reference price for the day: the price at 00:00 New York time. When you make it yours, I'll ask what the rules above leave open. Start with one of these: - How do you set the day's bias before the open, and do you write it down? - Which open do you measure from: midnight New York, the London open or the New York open? - How far past the open or the early range must the false move go? [Ask Edge in DT Terminal](https://www.thedtterminal.com/login?signup=true&from=academy&entry=strategy_question&redirect=%2Fjournal%2Facademy%2Fstrategies%2Fict_power_of_three) ## From DT Academy - [Power of three, AMD and the Judas swing](https://www.thedtterminal.com/academy/ict-power-of-three) - [Daily bias and the higher-timeframe draw](https://www.thedtterminal.com/academy/ict-daily-bias) - [Liquidity](https://www.thedtterminal.com/academy/liquidity) ## What testing exists No independent test was found. The idea overlaps with older Wyckoff ideas about accumulation and distribution. ## Before you trust a backtest - Many professional traders risk under 1% of their account on one trade idea, and the common guideline is 1 to 2%. - The more versions of a rule you try on the same data, the more likely a good backtest is luck. Decide your rules before you test. - Include spread and commission, and practice on dates you have not looked at, before you trust a result. ## Sources - [Judas swing (opens in a new tab)](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/judas-swing/), LuxAlgo Library - [ICT Power of 3 (PO3): a guide to market phases (opens in a new tab)](https://www.brokerxplorer.com/article/ict-power-of-3-po3-a-guide-to-follow-market-phases-6493), BrokerXplorer - [Smart money concept explained (opens in a new tab)](https://www.cmcmarkets.com/en-gb/trading-strategies/smart-money-concept), CMC Markets - [Controlling risk (opens in a new tab)](https://www.ig.com/en/ig-academy/money-management/controlling-risk), IG Academy - [Forex risk management (opens in a new tab)](https://www.cmcmarkets.com/en-gb/forex/forex-risk-management), CMC Markets - [Pseudo-mathematics and financial charlatanism (Notices of the AMS, 2014) (opens in a new tab)](https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/math_pubs/40/), Bailey, Borwein, López de Prado and Zhu - [What is backtesting? (opens in a new tab)](https://www.ig.com/uk/trading-strategies/what-is-backtesting-and-how-do-you-backtest-a-trading-strategy--220426), IG 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. [Risk disclosure](https://www.thedtterminal.com/risk-disclosure) --- Risk disclosure: Futures, forex and options trading contains substantial risk and is not for every investor. An investor could potentially lose all or more than the initial investment. Risk capital is money that can be lost without jeopardizing one's financial security or lifestyle. Only risk capital should be used for trading and only those with sufficient risk capital should consider trading. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. [Read the full risk disclosure](https://www.thedtterminal.com/legal/risk-disclosure). This is the Markdown version of https://www.thedtterminal.com/academy/strategies/ict_power_of_three. [Home](https://www.thedtterminal.com/) · [Verification](https://www.thedtterminal.com/verification) · [Pricing](https://www.thedtterminal.com/pricing) · [Supported brokers](https://www.thedtterminal.com/supported-brokers) · [Rankings](https://www.thedtterminal.com/rankings) · [About](https://www.thedtterminal.com/about) · [llms.txt](https://www.thedtterminal.com/llms.txt)