ICT Killzones

The four ICT Killzones shaded across a typical trading day.

The four ICT Killzones (ET)

London Open Killzone: 02:00 – 05:00 ET. Sets the European session's direction and often sweeps the Asian range.
New York AM Killzone: 08:30 – 11:00 ET. The single highest-volume window of the day. Most prop-firm and ICT traders take their best setup here.
New York Lunch Killzone: 12:00 – 13:00 ET. Lower-probability — the market often reverses the AM move into NY PM.
New York PM Killzone: 13:30 – 16:00 ET. Continuation or second reversal of the day. Good for swing-style intraday.

Some ICT traders also track an Asian Killzone (19:00 – 23:00 ET) — useful for marking the range that London will sweep, but not a primary trading window.

Why Killzones work

Volume is not evenly distributed across the day. The NY AM Killzone alone delivers more order flow than the entire Asian session. That concentration of volume is what creates the clean liquidity sweeps, market structure shifts and Fair Value Gaps that ICT setups depend on.

A clean FVG that forms at 03:00 ET (low volume) is much less reliable than one that forms at 09:35 ET (cash open). Same pattern, very different probability.

The Killzone workflow

Mark the previous session's high and low before the Killzone opens.
Wait for the Killzone to open before placing any orders.
Watch for a liquidity sweep of one of the prior highs/lows in the first 30 minutes.
Confirm with a market structure shift on the 1m or 5m.
Enter on the FVG or order block created by the shift.
Stop just beyond the swept extreme; target the opposite liquidity pool.

What about the Silver Bullet?

The Silver Bullet is a one-hour sub-window inside each Killzone (10:00–11:00 ET for NY AM, 14:00–15:00 ET for NY PM). It is the highest-probability hour for a clean FVG setup. ICT traders treat it as the "sniper window" of the day.

Practice Killzones

NQ Replay shades the four Killzones automatically on every session. Open the replay, pick any day, and step through the NY AM open candle by candle to see how often the sweep → MSS → FVG sequence delivers. The repeatability is what makes Killzone discipline worth the wait.

Frequently asked questions

What are the ICT Killzones in ET?

London Open 02:00–05:00, New York AM 08:30–11:00, New York Lunch 12:00–13:00, New York PM 13:30–16:00. Some traders also track an Asian Killzone from 19:00–23:00 ET.

Which Killzone is best for NQ?

The New York AM Killzone (08:30–11:00 ET) — it overlaps the US cash open and delivers the highest volume of the day, which is where ICT setups perform best.

Can I trade outside the Killzones?

You can, but probability drops sharply. The same setup that works at 09:35 ET often fails at 03:00 ET because the volume that drives institutional flow simply isn't there.

Why use Killzones at all?

They filter out 80% of the trading day's noise. By restricting entries to high-volume windows, you trade fewer setups but each one carries a much higher edge.