ICT Concepts Indicator [Advanced]

Description

Those key concepts are the following:

• Change of Structure (or Change of Character, or Market Structure Shift) that indicates that the trend might change
• Break of Structure (or Market Structure Break) that indicates a continuation of the trend
• Fair Value Gaps, which represent displacements of price and are defined as instances of inefficiencies or imbalances visualized by three consecutive candles containing one large middle candle whose bordering candles' upper and lower wicks do not overlap
• Volume Imbalance (VIB), price voids created when market momentum causes rapid price movements, leaving empty space between candle bodies that act as market magnets
• Gap Imbalance (GIB), a more powerful form of imbalance where no wick closes through the gap, indicating an even stronger market inefficiency
• Order Blocks, which represent crucial support and resistance levels derived from aggressive price movement, and can be used as entry or exit levels
• Immediate Rebalances, price regions with no inefficiencies, no imbalances, and no gap that price needs to return to
• NWOG (New Week Opening Gap) — the price gap between Friday's closing price and Sunday's opening price
• NDOG (New Day Opening Gap) — the price gap between yesterday's closing price and today's opening price
• RTHG (Opening Range Gap) — marks the distance between the first opening tick of a session and the previous session's close
• Interactively control and manipulate the ICT zones on the chart
• Multi-timeframe capabilities

Examples

Change of Character (Market Structure Shift) and Break of Structure

The market structure features of the indicator draw market structure shifts and breaks of structure. Market Structure Shifts are price breakouts indicating a probability of price changing direction; Break of Structure are price breakouts indicating a trend-direction continuation. These events are building blocks of the ICT methodology and can be used as bias determinants and filters to go long or short.

Running Market Structure Analysis on a Higher Timeframe

The indicator can run on a higher timeframe to allow top-down analysis — for example overlaying higher-timeframe candles (30 minutes) on top of the active chart's candles (5 minutes), detecting a BOS on the higher timeframe that leads to a large move a few minutes later.

Fair Value Gaps

The indicator can detect several Fair Value Gaps — e.g. on the MES instrument on a 5-minute timeframe. Coupled with MSS and MSB, FVGs can be a very good signal to enter a trade. Bullish FVGs are drawn in green, bearish FVGs in red, and their drawing stops once mitigated. Common entry setups include a clear rejection after a bullish FVG is retested (stop loss at the swing low of the rejection candle), three touch points on an FVG zone followed by a clear ChoCh and a new FVG formation, or a clean rebound on the FVG zone. FVG analysis and detection can also run on a higher timeframe if Run on Higher Timeframe is enabled — and multiple instances of the indicator can be added to the same chart with different timeframes for advanced multi-timeframe top-down analysis.

Volume Imbalance (VIB)

Volume Imbalance (VIB) occurs when the market moves with strong momentum, creating price voids between consecutive candle bodies. Unlike Fair Value Gaps, which rely on specific three-candle patterns with non-overlapping wicks, Volume Imbalances form more rapidly during aggressive price movements.

Bullish Imbalance: forms when the open price of the second candle is higher than the close price of the first candle, leaving empty space between the two bodies — price the market did not trade through due to strong buying pressure. Bearish Imbalance: forms when the open price of the second candle is lower than the close price of the previous candle's body — price levels skipped over due to aggressive selling pressure.

Volume Imbalances act like market "magnets" because the market moved too quickly to fill those prices — price typically revisits these areas to balance orders and provide liquidity before continuing a trend, making them valuable zones for both entry and exit strategies. VIB zones can be traded similarly to FVGs — entering when price revisits and retests the zone, or using them as additional confluence with other ICT concepts like Order Blocks or Market Structure events.

Gap Imbalance (GIB)

Gap Imbalance (GIB) follows the same principles as Volume Imbalance but with an additional, more restrictive condition: no wick can close through the gap — a Gap Imbalance forms when consecutive candles create a gap between their bodies and neither candle's wick penetrates the opposite candle's body, so the gap remains completely untouched by any price movement.

The fact that no wick closes through a GIB zone indicates extremely strong directional momentum, making GIBs a more aggressive and reliable imbalance signal than standard VIBs. GIB zones act as powerful magnets for price and are typically revisited with stronger conviction than VIBs. Combining GIBs with Market Structure events and Order Blocks creates a high-confluence setup for disciplined traders looking for high-probability trade entries.

Order Blocks

Order Blocks are defined as zones created from the last high swing candle (for bearish) or the last low swing candle (for bullish) before a Market Structure Shift or a Break of Structure, with two additional rules: the candle defining the Order Block should be followed by an FVG, and the Order Block zone should not be mitigated before the breakout creating the Market Structure event. Order Blocks are traded when price revisits them — a bearish order block that formed an FVG right after the candle defining its zone, then wasn't mitigated until the ChoCh, can be shorted when price mitigates the zone and moves back down; the mirror setup applies to bullish order blocks, with a stop loss set at the block's lower level, typically targeting a 1:1 win/loss ratio.

Immediate Rebalances

Immediate rebalances, a concept taught by ICT, hold significant importance in decision-making. Where a Fair Value Gap arises from market inefficiencies or imbalances, an Immediate Rebalance leaves no gap, no inefficiencies, and no imbalances that price would need to return to. An Immediate Rebalance is successful when price marks a continuation in its direction, and failed when price immediately reverses and goes back the opposite way — both outcomes can hold significance in trading when analyzed alongside other ICT items. For example, running the indicator on a 15-minute higher timeframe over a 5-minute MES chart with higher-timeframe candles overlaid, a first IR marked "Fail" (price immediately pulled back and broke the IR level) can flag a bearish bias, while an IR that holds price above it across multiple swing points, with price ultimately moving higher, flags a bullish bias.

NDOG (New Day Opening Gap)

The New Day Opening Gap (NDOG) is defined by ICT as the separation in time/price caused by the 1-hour break that occurs each day in the futures market — the opening price of the gap is the very first tick at the 6:00pm (UTC-4) restart, compared against the previous session's 5:00pm closing price. These gaps can act as liquidity draws as well as general reference points for determining daily bias.

RTH Gap (Opening Range Gap)

The Opening Range Gap, also known as the Regular Trading Hours (RTH) Gap, is the distance between the first opening tick of a session and the previous session's close, when looking at a chart's Regular Trading Hours (not to be confused with Electronic Trading Hours) — occurring between 4:15pm (UTC-4) and 9:30am the next day.

NWOG (New Week Opening Gap)

The NWOG is the gap between Friday's closing price and Sunday's opening price. These gaps can act as liquidity draws as well as general reference points for determining weekly bias.

Interacting With ICT Zones on the Chart

One of this indicator's unique features is interactivity. All ICT zones drawn on the chart can become interactive by enabling the Interactivity parameter — select an individual item on the chart, then right-click to see a context menu entry named ATCH ICT[Advanced] with several command buttons: Hide All prior to clicked Index (hides all ICT zones before where you clicked, to unclutter past events that are no longer pertinent), Hide Selected (hides the selected zone), and Stop Extending Selected at Clicked Index (stops the selected zone at the clicked bar index) — with more commands planned in future releases.

Features

The ICT Concepts [Advanced] indicator has a set of unique features:

• Can be run on a higher timeframe while drawing on a lower timeframe, allowing multi-timeframe analysis
• Can overlay drawing of higher-timeframe candles when run on a Higher Timeframe
• Can play a sound alert on each ICT zone
• Can be run with or without TickReplay on any time-based or price-based chart
• Interactive commands and operations applicable to ICT zones on the chart by right-clicking
• Active development and constantly adding new features

Parameters

We always try to keep the parameters to a minimum.

Download & Installation Instructions

Installation Steps

1

Import the downloaded .zip file into NinjaTrader using the Import NinjaScript menu item.

2

Open a new chart window.

3

Right-click the chart and choose Indicators... to add the indicator to the chart.

4

Paste your license (found on the billing page) into the license parameter.

5

After adding the indicator to the chart with a valid license, it runs on the chart's historical data first, then continues to run on live market data.

Frequently Asked Questions

General

Subscriptions Q&A

Release Notes