# ICT Silver Bullet: a strategy to learn and test | DT Academy > A one-hour ICT window: wait for a sweep, then trade the gap that forms in it. [Strategy Library](https://www.thedtterminal.com/academy/strategies) ICT # ICT Silver Bullet A time-boxed model from Michael J. Huddleston (ICT), popular since the early 2020s. In three one-hour windows of the New York day you wait for price to take liquidity or shift structure, then enter on a fair value gap that forms inside that hour, aiming at the liquidity on the other side. No gap inside the hour means no trade. Advanced Index futures, forex majors, gold New York time windows 03:00 to 04:00, 10:00 to 11:00 and 14:00 to 15:00 M1, M5 [Use this strategy](https://www.thedtterminal.com/login?signup=true&from=academy&entry=strategy_use&redirect=%2Fjournal%2Facademy%2Fstrategies%2Fict_silver_bullet) [Practice it](https://www.thedtterminal.com/login?signup=true&from=academy&entry=strategy_practice&redirect=%2Fjournal%2Facademy%2Fstrategies%2Fict_silver_bullet) Example 01 ### ICT Silver Bullet on a chart US100 · M1 10:00 to 11:00 sweep, gap, return Swept low: 18,032.00Entry, gap top: 18,050.50Stop: 18,022.50Target, old high: 18,090.50Sample candles, not market data The sweep and the gap both happened inside the hour, and the entry waited for price to come back into the gap. The target is the old high marked before 10:00. ### The rules Setup Before the window, mark the liquidity on both sides: the nearest old highs and lows price has not taken Trade only inside one of the windows (New York time): 03:00 to 04:00, 10:00 to 11:00 or 14:00 to 15:00 Entry Inside the window, wait for a sweep of one side or a market structure shift Enter on a fair value gap that forms inside the window, in the direction of the move away from the sweep Stop Beyond the swing that made the sweep Target The opposing liquidity you marked before the window Manage Take no setup that forms after the hour ends ### Common mistakes - Trading after the hour. A gap that forms at 11:05 is outside the model, however good it looks. - Chasing the move. Entering on the candle that made the gap, instead of the return into it. - Getting the hours wrong. The windows are New York time and move with US daylight saving. - Trusting one window is best. Claims that one hour is the most consistent are opinion. Test each one. ### When it's off - No fair value gap inside the hour means no trade - Call it off if a candle closes through the far edge of the gap before entry - Skip it if you would have to chase the move that made the gap ### Words to know Silver Bullet A time-boxed ICT model in three one-hour New York windows: 03:00 to 04:00, 10:00 to 11:00 and 14:00 to 15:00. Inside the hour it needs a sweep or structure shift, then a fair value gap that forms inside the window; no gap inside the hour means no trade. Killzone Windows of the day, in New York time, when ICT looks for setups: London open 02:00 to 05:00 and New York open 07:00 to 10:00 (index traders often use 08:30 to 11:00). Sources disagree by up to an hour, and the times follow US daylight saving. 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. Market structure shift The first break against the trend: in an uptrend, a candle body closing below the last higher low (the low that launched the latest high). The ICT course requires displacement, a fast move that usually leaves a fair value gap; a wick through that closes back is a rejection, not a shift. Fair value gap A three-candle pattern where a strong middle candle leaves a space between the wicks of candles 1 and 3: bullish when candle 3's low is above candle 1's high, bearish when candle 3's high is below candle 1's low. Academy marks it wick to wick, and if those wicks touch or overlap there is no gap. Liquidity Orders already waiting at a price, many of them thought to be stop losses and breakout orders. Buy-side liquidity rests above swing highs, sell-side liquidity below swing lows. Opposing liquidity The old highs or lows on the other side of the market, where the trade aims. When you make it yours, I'll ask what the rules above leave open. Start with one of these: - Which window or windows do you trade, and how do you convert them to your time zone through daylight saving? - Which liquidity do you mark before the window, and on which timeframe? - What counts as the sweep or structure shift: a wick beyond the level, or a body close? [Ask Edge in DT Terminal](https://www.thedtterminal.com/login?signup=true&from=academy&entry=strategy_question&redirect=%2Fjournal%2Facademy%2Fstrategies%2Fict_silver_bullet) ## From DT Academy - [The Silver Bullet](https://www.thedtterminal.com/academy/ict-silver-bullet) - [The ICT clock: sessions and killzones](https://www.thedtterminal.com/academy/ict-sessions-and-killzones) - [Identifying fair value gaps](https://www.thedtterminal.com/academy/fair-value-gaps) - [Liquidity](https://www.thedtterminal.com/academy/liquidity) ## What testing exists No independent test of the Silver Bullet was found. Intraday activity does follow repeatable patterns around the opens, which supports trading when markets are active, not any one hour. ## 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 - [Silver Bullet (opens in a new tab)](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/silver-bullet/), LuxAlgo Library - [ICT Silver Bullet strategy (opens in a new tab)](https://backtrex.com/en/blog/ict-silver-bullet-strategy-trading-guide), Backtrex - [ICT Killzones (opens in a new tab)](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/indicator/5zSOg8zv-ict-killzones/), LuxAlgo Library - [Deutsche mark-dollar volatility: intraday activity patterns (NBER w5783) (opens in a new tab)](https://projects.nber.org/papers/w5783), Andersen and Bollerslev - [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). 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