Built on ICT concepts. Stripped down to what actually pays.
I trade Nasdaq futures during the New York open, before my day job starts. Two hours is the whole window — so the model has to be clear, repeatable, and fast to read.
Midnight Open
The day's reference line. Where price sits relative to it tells me how to frame the session before I look for anything else.
Liquidity Sweeps
Price hunts the stops resting above old highs and below old lows. I want to see that liquidity taken before I get involved — not be the liquidity.
Fair Value Gaps (FVG)
A three-candle imbalance where price moved so fast it left a gap. Higher-timeframe FVGs are the areas I expect price to react from.
Inverse FVG (iFVG)
When price closes through an FVG and it flips roles — old support becomes resistance, or vice versa. That flip is my entry signal.
HTF FVG + iFVG. Direction matched. That's the trade.
Everything comes down to one confluence: an iFVG forming out of a higher-timeframe FVG pointing the same way. If both aren't there, I don't have a trade.
Mark the higher-timeframe FVGs
Before the open, I map out the HTF gaps price is likely to trade into. These are the only areas I care about.
Wait for price to reach an extreme
Longs only at the low of day. Shorts only at the high of day. If price is in the middle of the range, I'm sitting on my hands.
Get the iFVG in the same direction
Price trades into the HTF FVG and prints an iFVG that agrees with it. Bullish out of bullish. Bearish out of bearish. No mixing.
Execute and let it play
Limit order on the entry unless momentum is strong enough that I'd miss it. Target is 1:1. Once I'm in, I don't touch it.
The iFVG has to match the direction of the higher-timeframe FVG it forms from.
The model gets me in. The rules keep me funded.
A good setup means nothing without discipline. These are non-negotiable on every account, every day.
- Daily stopMax 2 losses per day. If the loss came on an A+ setup, I'm done after 1 — the market told me it's not my day.
- LocationLongs only at low of day. Shorts only at high of day. No exceptions.
- SizingChart NQ, execute MNQ. Full-size NQ only when I'm on an evaluation.
- Target1:1. Simple, repeatable, and it keeps the math honest.
- OrdersLimit orders by default. Market only when momentum won't give me a fill.
- ExecutionIf the trade makes sense, I take it. No second-guessing — let the probabilities play out over a series of trades.
- MindsetNo FOMO. A missed trade costs nothing. A good loss is just a business expense.
I'm not trying to be right on every trade. I'm trying to execute the same edge the same way, every time.
Trading firm capital, not my savings.
I run this model across multiple funded prop-firm accounts and copy trades between them. Prop firms cap my downside to the cost of an evaluation while giving me real buying power — and their drawdown rules line up with how I already manage risk.
Keeping the day job is part of the strategy too. Not needing a trade to pay the bills is what lets me walk away after two losses without a second thought.
Want to see it live?
I break down setups, post daily bias, and trade the open alongside the community in the SNQ Syndicate.