ICT Mentorship Core Content - Month 1 - What To Focus On Right Now

Main ideas / lessons conveyed

• Mindset shift: Traders must adopt the “smart money / informed money” perspective, which is diametrically opposed to the mindset of “uninformed / speculative money.”

• Reject indicator-only thinking (at first):

  • Uninformed traders believe indicators (e.g., overbought/oversold) directly cause price movement.
  • This mentorship instructs students to purge indicators from their charts initially—not because indicators are “evil,” but because they prevent students from reading market structure and smart-money behavior.
  • Indicators can be used later to help understand what uninformed traders are thinking, tied to the mentorship’s future sentiment focus.

• There is always a “victim” / losing side in markets: The speaker frames markets as always involving a losing crowd, and the student’s goal is not to join that crowd.

• Liquidity is the core driver of price delivery:

  • Smart money provides liquidity by targeting stops and pending orders.
  • Market efficiency is described as being engineered for smart-money interests by neutralizing or offsetting their trades.

• Replace victim/aggressor framing with efficiency:

  • Don’t “vilify” market makers/smart money/uninformed traders.
  • Focus on how efficient price delivery works—and how it tends to benefit smart money.

• Four primary drivers of price (framework for the mentorship):

  1. Retracement
  2. Expansion
  3. Reversal
  4. Consolidation

• Students are also advised not to search for “intricate secrets” yet—first build the foundation so later techniques make sense.

---

Methodology / instructions (detailed)

A) What to focus on right now (as a new student)

• Do not bring in previous trading knowledge or assume your old methods guarantee future success.

  • Advanced traders must “put aside” what they already know and start from square one.
  • The speaker warns that past profitability may have been driven by factors outside institutional order flow, which may stop working.

• Resist forecasting price movements during this stage.

  • Don’t predict what the market will do next—this causes frustration early on.

• Create a daily price action log with charts.

  • Journaling/logging is presented as a core professional practice that builds clarity and experience.
  • The mentorship will build on this over the full 12 months.

---

B) Build a standardized multi-timeframe chart layout (minimum required history)

• Use one currency pair at first for the process (the speaker mentions avoiding GBP and EUR specifically, since that pair will be handled later in the mentorship).

Recommended chart data windows

• Daily chart: 9–12 months view (ideally ~12 months)
• 4-hour chart: at least 3 months
• 1-hour (60-minute) chart: at least 3 weeks
• 15-minute chart: last 3–4 days only

Keep charts uncluttered

• Use separate, independent charts for different analysis elements—don’t overload one chart.
• The speaker describes an approach that effectively results in two “Swissy” charts (example pairing) plus a separate 15-minute chart for the most recent period.

---

C) What to mark/record on charts (Daily, 4H, 1H, 15M)

On the daily chart, mark:

• Most recent highs and most recent lows where price showed willingness to repel (a foundation for later frameworks like order blocks and liquidity voids).
• Any quick movement away from a level (sharp run higher/lower from a specific level).
• Recent highs/lows not retested yet (i.e., price hasn’t come back to confirm/visit the level soon after it formed).

Identify “liquidity magnets” / stop areas:

• Clean/equal highs: two equal highs close together, after which price moves away—often creating stop-buying interest above that zone.
• Equal lows / double bottoms: two equal lows close together—often creating stop-selling liquidity below.
• These are framed as areas with a tendency to be tested, not guaranteed outcomes.

Record timing details:

• Where weekly highs/lows form: “London” or “New York” (called “kill zone”).
• Day of week and time of day when weekly highs/lows form.
• On each trading day, record:
  • the daily high
  • the daily low
  • and the time/day when they form

---

D) Process flow across timeframes (transposition)

• Start on Daily: Mark key recent highs/lows and relevant levels.

• Drop to 4-hour: Transpose the same levels onto the 4H chart and look for:

  • additional equal highs/lows
  • “clean” moves away from levels (large impulsive candles)

• Drop to 1-hour: Use the hourly chart to refine intraday context (framed as a bellwether for short-term trading).

• Then use 15-minute:

  • Use only the last 3–4 days.
  • Apply the same reference logic (daily highs/lows and prior relevant levels) but for intraday execution.
  • The speaker describes aligning reference zones to 0 GMT (8 PM in their time zone) and drawing previous day high/low levels accordingly.

---

E) Daily execution requirement

Every trading day, document and update:

• Previous day highs/lows
• Current daily high/low as they form
• Notes tied to day-of-week/session behavior

The speaker gives an example of how days relate:

• One day’s high can become liquidity that may be swept later (e.g., stops above a prior day’s high).
• Later days may retrace into the prior range before extending or consolidating.

---

How this is supposed to help (as described)

• Uniformly organized charts and logs create:

  • Clarity and perspective
  • A consistent framework for understanding repeating market behavior
  • The ability to keep analysis separate from live execution so you can adapt if price behaves differently than expected

• The speaker emphasizes not marrying your analysis:

  • Base expectations on probabilities,
  • but remain flexible—switch gears or step aside if conditions change.

---

Speakers / sources featured

• Primary speaker: The instructor/host of the “ICT Mentorship Core Content - Month 1” series (no name provided in the subtitles).