ICT Liquidity Trading: Buyside/Sellside, Charts, Strategies & Downloadable PDF

In ICT (Inner Circle Trader) methodology, liquidity refers to key price levels – often equal highs or lows – where retail traders’ stop-losses accumulate. Smart money manipulates price around these zones to fill their orders without significant market fluctuation. Understanding liquity and how smart moeny “engineered liquidity” is fundamental to ICT trading. This blog post will covers liquidity, its types with practical examples, and teach you how to trade ICT liquidity concepts using real chart example.

What is ICT Liquidity?

ICT defines liquidity as the places on a chart where most retail traders put their stop-loss orders — usually above equal highs or below equal lows.

Retail traders often think these levels are strong support or resistance, and they expect the price to reverse from there. So, when they sell (go short), they place their stop-loss just above resistance.

When they buy (go long), they place their stop-loss just below support. They do this to protect their money if the market moves against them.

Types of Liquidity?

Liquidity is basically of types

1. Buyside Liqudity (BSL)
2. Sellside Liqudity (SSL)

What is Buy Side Liquidity?

Buy-Side Liquidity (BSL) refers to the stop-loss orders placed above equal highs (EQHs) or key resistance levels — like shown in the image below.

Retail traders often believe that these highs will hold and that price won’t go any higher, so they place sell trades with their stop-losses just above those highs. They think that if price touches those levels, it will reverse and go down.

But Smart Money knows this,They intentionally create these equal highs to make it look like a strong resistance level — building a false narrative that price won’t break through. This traps retail traders into selling. Once enough stop-losses (buy orders) are sitting above the highs, Smart Money pushes price up just enough to trigger them, grabs the liquidity, and then reverses the market downward.

What is Sell Side Liquidity?

Sell-Side Liquidity is the pool of stop-losses placed just below obvious support levels or equal lows. These are areas where many traders expect the price to stop falling and bounce back up as shown in below image.

Retail traders see a strong support zone or multiple candles forming the same low (equal lows), so they assume the price will go up from there. They open buy trades and place their stop-losses just below that support, thinking it’s a safe level.

The liquidity chart below shows how smart moeny reverse its direction after manipulating the price. Firt prices goes down and after stoploss hunt change its directions.

But that’s exactly what Smart Money wants.They let price hover around the support to create the illusion of safety. Once enough stop-losses build up under that area, they push the price slightly lower to trigger all those orders. This move is known as a liquidity grab or stop-loss hunt.

After collecting those orders, Smart Money now has the fuel (liquidity) to enter their own buy trades — often causing the market to reverse and go up sharply, while retail traders are already out of the market.

What is ICT Liquidity Sweep?

A Liquidity Sweep is when Smart Money intentionally pushes the price beyond obvious support or resistance levels to trigger the stop-loss orders of retail traders.

• Push price just above equal highs to trigger buy stops (this is a sweep of Buy-Side Liquidity)
• Push price just below equal lows to trigger sell stops (this is a sweep of Sell-Side Liquidity)

Where To Find Liquidty?

• High and Low of the Hourly Candle
  Useful for intraday trades. These act as short-term liquidity targets during kill zones.
• High and Low of the Previous Trading Session
  Common stop-loss areas for retail traders. Often targeted during liquidity sweeps.
• High and Low of the Daily Candle
  Key reference points for both intraday and swing traders. Frequently used in ICT setups.
• High and Low of the Weekly Candle
  Major liquidity zones that Smart Money may target for bigger moves.
• Highs and Lows in the IPDA Lookback Period (60 Days)
  The 60-day range helps identify long-term liquidity pools and Smart Money targets.

ICT Liquidity Trading Strategy – Step-by-Step Guide

1. Wait for the Kill Zone
   Choose your preferred Kill Zone (e.g. London Open, New York Open). These are key times when high-probability setups often occur.
2. Mark Equal Highs or Equal Lows (15-Minute Chart)
   On the 15-minute timeframe, look for areas where price has formed equal highs (for sell-side setups) or equal lows (for buy-side setups). These zones likely hold liquidity.
3. Wait for a Liquidity Sweep
   Watch for price to move above the equal highs or below the equal lows, triggering stop-losses. This is the liquidity grab.
4. Look for Market Structure Shift (MSS)
   After the sweep, wait for an aggressive candle (break of structure) showing a clear reversal, signaling that Smart Money is in control.
5. Find a Fair Value Gap (FVG) on Lower Timeframe (1–3 Min)
   Drop to a 3-minute or 1-minute chart. Look for a Fair Value Gap (an imbalance where price moved quickly and left a gap between candles).
6. Enter on Price Return to FVG
   When price returns to the FVG (to fill the gap), that’s your entry point. Place your stop below the recent swing (for buys) or above it (for sells).

Downloadable PDF
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Some Frequewlty Asked Questions (FAQs) Related to Liqudity