The ICT Silver Bullet, Explained With Real NQ Examples
The Silver Bullet is a one-hour ICT window that produces high-probability NQ trades. Here's the exact rules, entry model, and how to rehearse it in replay.
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The Silver Bullet is ICT's most repeatable intraday model. It targets a one-hour window, a specific type of imbalance, and a defined liquidity draw — which is why it's the first model most funded-account traders lock in.
The rules in one paragraph
During 10:00–11:00 ET (AM Silver Bullet) or 14:00–15:00 ET (PM Silver Bullet), wait for price to trade into an unmitigated fair value gap that formed earlier in the same session, in the direction of the higher-timeframe draw on liquidity. Enter on the FVG mitigation. Stop above/below the swing that created the FVG. Target the next opposing liquidity pool.
Why the one-hour window matters
Algorithmic delivery on NQ tends to reprice into inefficiencies during predictable windows. The 10:00–11:00 window historically prints the cleanest reversal or continuation of the day — outside it, you're fighting chop.
Walk-through: a bullish Silver Bullet
— 09:35 — a bullish FVG prints on the 3-minute during the opening drive.
— 10:07 — price trades back up into the unmitigated FVG and rejects.
— Entry at FVG mitigation, stop below the sweep low, target = previous day high.
How to rehearse it
Load any trend day in replay, jump to 09:30 ET, and step bar-by-bar. Only take Silver Bullet entries. Twenty reps and the pattern becomes obvious.
Data & methodology
All NQ and MNQ examples use Databento GLBX.MDP3 1-minute OHLCV candles for continuous front-month E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures, aggregated to higher timeframes (5m, 15m, 1h, 4h, 1D, 1W) so every bar agrees across timeframes. Sessions cover the full CME Globex day, 18:00–17:00 ET. ICT overlays are drawn algorithmically from the same price data used in the replay trainer.