The Judas Swing (ICT Judas Swing) is a trading strategy developed by Michael Huddleston, also known as Inner Circle Trader (ICT). This strategy allows traders to identify fake market moves designed by smart money to deceive retail traders.
By concentrating on market structure, price action patterns, and liquidity flows, traders can align their trades with institutional movements and avoid common pitfalls. It is particularly useful in FOREX and stock markets, helping traders identify optimal entry and exit points while minimizing risks from false breakouts.
In today's volatile markets, understanding how smart money manipulates price action across sessions such as Asia, London, and New York is essential for success. The ICT Judas Swing strategy helps traders avoid common pitfalls by focusing on key movements during the opening time and range of each session, identifying breakouts and false breakouts.
By utilizing various time frames and improving risk management, this strategy enables traders to make more informed decisions and take advantage of significant market movements.
In the Judas Swing strategy, for a bullish setup, the price first touches the high of the 15-minute range of New York midnight and then the low. After that, the price returns upward, breaks the high, and if there’s a candlestick confirmation during the pullback, a buy signal is generated.
bearish setup, the price first touches the low of the range, then the high. With the price returning downward and breaking the low, if there’s a candlestick confirmation during the pullback to the low, a sell signal is generated.
🔵How to Use
To effectively implement the Judas Swing strategy (ICT Judas Swing) in trading, traders must first identify the price range of the 15-minute window following New York midnight. This range, consisting of highs and lows, sets the stage for the upcoming movements in the London and New York sessions.
🟣Bullish Setup
For a bullish setup, the price first moves to touch the high of the range, then the low, before returning upward to break the high. Following this, a pullback occurs, and if a valid candlestick confirmation (such as a reversal pattern) is observed, a buy signal is generated. This confirmation could indicate the presence of smart money supporting the bullish movement.
🟣Bearish Setup
For a bearish setup, the process is the reverse. The price first touches the low of the range, then the high. Afterward, the price moves downward again and breaks the low. A pullback follows to the broken low, and if a bearish candlestick confirmation is seen, a sell signal is generated. This confirmation signals the continuation of the downward price movement.
Using the Judas Swing strategy enables traders to avoid fake breakouts and focus on strong market confirmations. The strategy is versatile, applying to FOREX, stocks, and other financial instruments, offering optimal trading opportunities through market structure analysis and time frame synchronization.
To execute this strategy successfully, traders must combine it with effective risk management techniques such as setting appropriate stop losses and employing optimal risk-to-reward ratios. While the Judas Swing is a powerful tool for predicting price movements, traders should remember that no strategy is entirely risk-free. Proper capital management remains a critical element of long-term success.
By mastering the ICT Judas Swing strategy, traders can better identify entry and exit points and avoid common traps from fake market movements, ultimately improving their trading performance.
🔵Setting
Opening Range: High and Low identification time range. Extend: The time span of the dashed line. Permit: Signal emission time range.
🔵Conclusion
The Judas Swing strategy (ICT Judas Swing) is a powerful tool in technical analysis that helps traders identify fake moves and align their trades with institutional actions, reducing risk and enhancing their ability to capitalize on market opportunities.
By leveraging key levels such as range highs and lows, fake breakouts, and candlestick confirmations, traders can enter trades with more precision. This strategy is applicable in forex, stocks, and other financial markets and, with proper risk management, can lead to consistent trading success.