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Premium and Discount definition
The two halves of a dealing range: above the midpoint is premium (expensive), below is discount (cheap).
What it means in ICT
ICT frames every entry as buying at a discount or selling at a premium relative to the current dealing range, never at the midpoint.
NQ example
If NQ is trading in the upper third of the overnight range, longs are being taken at a premium — the ICT read is to wait for a discount retrace instead.
Related guides
Practice Premium and Discount in replay
Load a historical NQ session and watch for premium and discount bar-by-bar, with ICT overlays drawn automatically.
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.