Killzones are the time windows when ICT expects the best setups to form: the hours when a major session opens, volume arrives, and liquidity is most likely to be taken. Outside them, ICT traders mostly wait.
| Killzone | New York time | UTC (northern winter) | What tends to happen |
|---|---|---|---|
| Asia | 20:00 – 00:00 | 01:00 – 05:00 | Quiet range; its high and low become liquidity |
| London open | 02:00 – 05:00 | 07:00 – 10:00 | Often takes one side of Asia and sets the day's high or low |
| New York open | 07:00 – 10:00 | 12:00 – 15:00 | US data at 8:30, stock open at 9:30; continuation or reversal |
| London close | 10:00 – 12:00 | 15:00 – 17:00 | Profit-taking; sometimes a retracement of the day's move |
Why New York time?
ICT anchors the trading day to New York because US futures, the dollar and US data drive so much of global markets. He also treats midnight New York time as the "true" daily open: in bullish days he expects buys below the midnight open, and in bearish days sells above it (chapter 7).
Converting to your time zone
New York observes daylight saving, and so do London and many other places, on different dates. Convert using New York time, not a fixed offset. If you're in a region without daylight saving, your local killzone times shift by an hour twice a year. The Markets page shows sessions in your own time automatically.
Using killzones
- As a filter: only take setups that form inside a killzone.
- As a map: mark the Asian high and low before London, and the London high and low before New York.
- As a schedule: trade one killzone that suits your life, consistently, rather than all of them.
Key takeaways
- Killzones are ICT's high-probability time windows: Asia, London open, New York open and London close.
- ICT quotes times in New York time and treats midnight New York as the true daily open.
- Convert killzones through New York time, because daylight saving changes on different dates around the world.
- Mark the previous session's high and low before each killzone, and specialise in one window.