ICT silver bullet explained, with times in New York

Why a one-hour window

Most new traders do not lose because they lack setups. They lose because they see setups everywhere, all day long. The silver bullet fixes the time first. You only look during one hour, and inside that hour you only look for one thing: a fair value gap that points toward an obvious target.

ICT presents it as a pattern that forms in some way on every trading day, which is why it suits a routine. The hour also gives you a clear end. If nothing lines up by 11:00, the morning is over and you did not trade. He advises new traders to specialise: one market, and if the London hour gave nothing, wait for the morning hour, then the afternoon one.

The three silver bullet windows

All times are New York time (ET). ICT stresses that your chart must be set to New York time for the windows to line up.

• London open silver bullet: 03:00–04:00. Inside the London kill zone (02:00–05:00). 08:00–09:00 in London for most of the year.
• AM session silver bullet: 10:00–11:00. It starts half an hour after the stock market opens at 09:30, once the first rush of orders has passed. 15:00–16:00 in London.
• PM session silver bullet: 14:00–15:00. The afternoon session. 19:00–20:00 in London.

The windows stay fixed on the New York clock all year, so they move on yours when the US or your country changes its clocks. The kill zone clock shows New York time next to your own.

How to trade it, step by step

1. Before the hour, mark the target. ICT calls it the draw on liquidity: the place price is most likely to reach next. Typical draws are the previous day’s high or low, an earlier session’s high or low, the previous week’s high or low, or an open opening gap such as the new week opening gap. Stop orders rest beyond old highs and lows, and price is drawn to them.
2. Pick the direction from the draw. If the obvious target is an old low below price, you look for shorts. If it is an old high above, you look for longs.
3. Wait for the move inside the hour. Watch for a fast move in that direction (displacement) that leaves a fair value gap. A gap that points the other way is not your setup.
4. Enter when price comes back into the gap, before the hour ends. The stop goes beyond the gap: above it for a short, below it for a long.
5. Check the room. From entry to target, ICT wants at least 10 points (40 ticks) on index futures, or 15 pips on forex. On NQ one point is four ticks. If the setup cannot offer that, skip it.

An NQ example, step by step

1. The draw (09:30): the first five-minute candle of the session leaves a low at 24,986.25. Sell stops rest under it. That low is the obvious target below.
2. The sweep (09:50): before the window opens, price runs above the pre-market high at 25,052.75 to 25,061.50 and closes back under it. Buyers chasing the breakout are now trapped above.
3. The gap (10:00–10:10): the window opens. The 10:05 candle drops from 25,045.00 to 25,010.50. The 10:00 candle’s low (25,036.50) and the 10:10 candle’s high (25,022.50) do not overlap, so 25,022.50–25,036.50 is a bearish fair value gap, with its CE (midpoint) at 25,029.50.
4. The entry (10:15): price rallies back into the gap, reaches 25,029.25, just under the CE, and closes at 25,026.00. A short inside the gap, with the stop above it, is the silver bullet entry. The room to the target is about 40 points, well over ICT’s 10-point minimum.
5. The target (10:40): price falls through 24,986.25, takes the sell stops and reaches 24,974.50 at 10:45, all inside the hour.

Many days are messier. The gap can form and fail, the draw can be unclear, or the hour can pass with nothing. Then the right trade is no trade.

Where ICT’s explanations differ over the years

The name shows up now and then in older lessons, but ICT taught the silver bullet as a full model in 2023. Even within a few months, details move:

• How much room. In a March 2023 live session he wants a run of more than five points. From May 2023 his stated minimum for index futures is 10 points; in one review he says a high-probability silver bullet has to offer 10.
• When the gap may form. In a May 2023 review he says the entry must come between 10:00 and 11:00 but the gap itself can form before 10:00. In his 2026 lesson for new students, the gap to log is the first one that forms inside the 10:00 hour.
• News. In 2024 he tells students that on days with 08:30 news (CPI, PPI, the jobs report) they should stay out of the open and wait for the 10:00 hour, and in another lesson not to take a silver bullet until a few minutes after a 10:00 news release.
• Adjusting the entry. In a May 2023 example price runs away from his first order, and he moves it to a lower gap that forms later, which he calls an evolving silver bullet.

When you test the model, write down which version of each rule you used.

Common mistakes

• Trading the hour without a target.

  The draw on liquidity comes first. If you cannot point at the old high or low price is heading for, there is no silver bullet, only a gap.

• Taking any fair value gap inside the window.

  The gap must point toward the draw: a bearish gap above price when the target is a low below, a bullish gap below price when the target is a high above.

• Ignoring the room to the target.

  Measure entry to target before you enter. Under 10 points on NQ or ES (15 pips on forex), ICT's own rule says pass.

• Chasing after 11:00.

  If price never came back into the gap during the hour, the setup is gone. Wait for the next window, or for tomorrow.

• Using your local clock.

  The windows are New York hours. Around the March and autumn clock changes, a local-time alarm can be an hour off. Set the chart to New York time.

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