ICT 9:30 New York Opening Range Liquidity Strategy

In this video, I'm breaking down my 9.30 New York opening range liquidity strategy,

using ICT concepts. If you've been struggling with fake breakouts or missed reversals right

after the market opens, and you miss the move, this is going to change the game for you.

Let's break it down. So, what is this strategy?

It focuses on the initial move after the New York session opens at 9.30,

waiting for manipulation into liquidity, then looking for signs of reversal to target

opposing liquidity. Basically, instead of reacting emotionally to that opening volatility,

we're reading the narrative and waiting for the real move.

This strategy works so well because we're trading with the institutional order flow,

not against it. At 9.30, liquidity floods in, and that's when smart money hunts for stops at

pools. Retail traders chase breakouts. We let them get trapped, then we buy or sell their

stop orders. It's structured, repeatable, and clean. You don't need indicators or 15 confluences,

just liquidity, displacement, and patience. Let's get into the step-by-step process.

We will start with when you first sit down at your charts. Try to aim for around 15-30 minutes

before market open. First step, mark out the midnight and 8.30 opening price. This will give

us context for which direction price is manipulating. Second step, mark out the two

most significant or obvious liquidity pools above and below current price. Look for relative equal

highs and lows. Third step, mark out most recent fair value gaps or inversion. Fair value gaps near

current price on the 1-minute chart. Final step, sit patiently for the 9.30 open to deliver.

Now we are ready and prepared for the opening bell. Let's move on to the process to look for trades.

Step 1. Let the 9.30 candle print. No early entries. Step 2. Watch if price runs into a

key liquidity level we marked out. Step 3. Once liquidity level has been reached,

wait for displacement in the opposite direction. Step 4. Look for your entry inside a fair value

gap, inversion, FVG, breaker, or even using a change in the state of delivery. Your stop should

be below a short-term swing low or the swing low. Step 5. Set target at the opposite liquidity pool.

Always take partials at logical low hanging fruit levels. So that was the strategy. Let's now look

at some examples from this past week. This example is from this last Thursday. Waited for 9.30 open

to manipulate lower to take out sell-side liquidity, then start to displace higher. In this

case, there wasn't any retracements to get into the trade, so you would have to use candle closes

above the change in the state of delivery. This comes with experience knowing when to enter,

but if the manipulation is there and you have a draw on liquidity above, it is high probability

to trade towards your target. This trade example is from this last Monday. Price trades lower at

9.30 open to take out two pools of sell-side liquidity, reaches the midnight open, and then

displaces higher. This is a strong sign of a reversal, especially since there are three

relative equal highs above with tons of liquidity resting above them in the form of buy stops.

So your entry for this trade would be as price trades above the first presented fair value gap,

or a close above the inversion FVG. Your last entry could be the change in state of delivery,

and target is the three highs above. For the last example, you might notice these

trades start to look incredibly similar. That's because they are. These same setups form every day,

and the logic applies the same way. Price manipulates the sell side and reaches midnight

opening price. This occurs right after 9.30 open. Then price closes above the first presented FVG

after 9.30, which is a strong signal higher prices are next. You can ride price all the way up to the

buy side liquidity above and be done for the day with a nice 3.6R winning trade and 100 points all

done before 10.30. If that's not good enough for you, I don't know what to tell you.

I want to go over some helpful tips to best execute this strategy. First is having significant

liquidity pools. Relative equal highs and lows are the highest probability. I can't stress enough

about having a draw on liquidity. If you don't know where price is likely to deliver towards,

you should not take the trade. Manipulation is key. You need to wait for price to fake

out all retail traders, as this is a signature that price is then able to reverse. Without

manipulation, there is no trade. Confluences that can make this strategy even better are utilizing

SMT, higher timeframe narrative, new week opening gaps, new day opening gaps, first presented fair

value gaps. If you found this strategy breakdown helpful, make sure to like the video, subscribe to

the channel, and follow me on Twitter and Instagram where I post live trade recaps. I'll catch you in

the next one.