The least glamorous part of trading, and the most important. Promise: as a game, it goes down easy. Chapter 6 of the beginner path. Before getting in, you know where you get out. Place the stop and the target, then work out the R and the number of contracts.
How to play
The trade follows the chart’s trend, entry at the current price. Tap the stop’s price, then the target’s. At Medium, also pick the R; at Hard, the number of contracts. At the end, what came next plays on until the stop or the target.
The rule that keeps score
On a buy, the stop goes below the last clear low; on a sell, above the last clear high. The target is the next level in the trade’s direction. R is the distance to the target divided by the distance to the stop.
Contracts: 1% of a $50,000 account, i.e. $500, divided by the stop distance in points times the value per point ($2 for MNQ, $10 for MGC), rounded down, like the site’s calculator.
Read next: Position size calculator
The beginner path
Eight chapters and an exam, from the market to the first trade: the market, the candle, highs and lows, the trend, the break of structure, support and resistance, risk, then the decision, and the final exam that brings it all together. Each one can be played on its own, in any order; Easy is for practice; a chapter is passed when every chart of a game at Medium or Hard is. It is an exercise on past data, not a trading signal.
The beginner path
In any order you like, but each chapter assumes the ones before it.
Its colour and its four prices: open, close, high, low.
3 levels · 3 charts per gamePlay →Chapter 1The marketBet up or down, and count what you win or lose, in points and in dollars.
3 levels · 5 charts per gamePlay →Chapter 2Highs and lowsThe waves of price, and the landmarks they leave.
3 levels · 5 charts per gamePlay →Chapter 3The trendUp, down or range, read on four points.
3 levels · 5 charts per gamePlay →Chapter 4The break of structureThe close that confirms the trend goes on.
3 levels · 5 charts per gamePlay →Chapter 5Support and resistanceThe levels price will meet, above and below.
3 levels · 5 charts per gamePlay →The stop, the target, R and the number of contracts.
3 levels · 5 charts per gameLong, short, or do nothing, on a real moment of a session.
3 levels · 5 charts per gamePlay →Final examThe final examThe whole path on a real moment of a session, with no help.
3 levels · 3 charts per gamePlay →The ICT concepts
What comes after the beginner path: each ICT concept has its game, on real charts, with its written rule.
The first break against the trend.
3 levels · 3 charts per gamePlay →DisplacementThe big candle that shows real intent.
3 levels · 3 charts per gamePlay →CISDThe close that flips the delivery.
3 levels · 3 charts per gamePlay →Equal highs / lowsTwo highs at the same level: a pool of stops.
3 levels · 3 charts per gamePlay →STH, ITH, LTHThe high that survived a return of price.
3 levels · 3 charts per gamePlay →Buy-side / sell-sideWhere the stops sit, above and below.
3 levels · 3 charts per gamePlay →Stop huntThe wick that goes for the stops, then comes back.
3 levels · 3 charts per gamePlay →Draw on liquidityThe liquidity price goes for.
3 levels · 3 charts per gamePlay →Fair Value GapThe price gap left by a candle that moved too fast.
3 levels · 3 charts per gamePlay →Inversion FVGThe FVG price went through, and that switches sides.
3 levels · 3 charts per gamePlay →Balanced Price RangeTwo opposite FVGs that overlap.
3 levels · 3 charts per gamePlay →Breakaway gapThe first FVG of a pair, which price never fills.
3 levels · 3 charts per gamePlay →Order blockThe last opposite candle before an impulsive move.
3 levels · 3 charts per gamePlay →Breaker blockThe order block that gave way, and switches sides.
3 levels · 3 charts per gamePlay →Mitigation blockThe order block revisited, that holds, and that price leaves from.
3 levels · 3 charts per gamePlay →Premium / discountThe middle of the range: expensive above, cheap below.
3 levels · 3 charts per gamePlay →Optimal Trade EntryThe pullback zone between 62 and 79%.
3 levels · 3 charts per gamePlay →SessionsLondon, New York, and the hours they overlap.
3 levels · 3 charts per gamePlay →KillzonesThe hours when the market really moves.
3 levels · 3 charts per gamePlay →Silver bulletThe FVG formed in the right hour.
3 levels · 3 charts per gamePlay →