Two of ICT's most-quoted setups. Both are Killzone-only. Both are high-conviction. But they trade differently, hit differently, and belong in different parts of a playbook. Here's how they stack up on NQ.
Silver Bullet — the workhorse
One-hour window (10:00–11:00 ET). Wait for an FVG that printed between 09:30 and 10:00 to get retested. Enter on mitigation, stop beyond the swing that created the FVG, target the next liquidity pool.
- — Frequency: ~4 setups per week on NQ.
- — Typical R:R: 2R–3R.
- — Best in: trending or clean opening drive days.
- — Fails on: chop days and heavy-news mornings.
Unicorn — the sniper
FVG + breaker block overlap. When a market structure shift creates an FVG that overlaps with the broken opposing order block, the retest defends hard. Enter on the retest of the overlap zone, stop beyond the breaker, target the origin of the move.
- — Frequency: ~1–2 setups per week on NQ.
- — Typical R:R: 3R–5R.
- — Best in: post-sweep reversals and session-open failures.
- — Fails on: news-driven momentum days with no MSS.
The comparison table
- — Win rate (composite of aggregate journal data): Silver Bullet ~58%, Unicorn ~64%.
- — Average R: Silver Bullet 2.1R, Unicorn 3.4R.
- — Setups per month: Silver Bullet ~16, Unicorn ~6.
- — Expectancy per setup: Silver Bullet 0.9R, Unicorn 1.7R.
Which one belongs in your funded challenge?
Both. Silver Bullet gives you the frequency to hit the profit target inside the minimum trading days. Unicorn gives you the R multiple to recover from a losing session without size increases. Run Silver Bullet daily. Take Unicorn when the overlap sets up — never force it.
The one rule most traders skip
If you can't identify the setup in one sentence before it triggers, you're pattern-matching after the fact. Skip it.
Rehearse the difference
Load 20 recent NQ sessions in replay. Tag every Silver Bullet and every Unicorn. Compute R for each. The data will tell you which one your strategy actually captures — and you'll stop guessing.