ICT Advance Market Structure – STH ITH & LTH

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For years I marked every swing high on my chart and treated each one as resistance. Most of them broke a few candles later. The few that actually held the move — those were the LTHs. The hierarchy of highs — STH, ITH, LTH — is the difference between a high that matters to the trend and a wick that simply did not.

In ICT, STH stands for Short Term High, ITH stands for Intermediate Term High, and LTH stands for Long Term High. These three labels rank every swing high on your chart by structural importance. The highest rank — LTH — marks the levels that decide whether a market is still bullish or has lost its trend.

In this guide, I will show you exactly how each of these highs is identified, the hierarchy that connects them, the rule for reading bullish market structure, and how to use the three labels in actual trading.

If you also want the lows side of advanced market structure (STL, ITL, LTL), see our companion post on ICT STL, ITL & LTL.

Do not worry — once you have seen the three-candle pattern a few times, identifying STHs, ITHs, and LTHs becomes mechanical.

Ready? Let us break it down.

What Are STH, ITH, and LTH in ICT?

In ICT trading, every swing high on your chart belongs to one of three tiers:

• STH — Short Term High. A basic three-candle swing high.
• ITH — Intermediate Term High. An STH with a lower STH on each side.
• LTH — Long Term High. An ITH with a lower ITH on each side, usually at a higher-timeframe PD Array.

Each tier is a stricter version of the one before it. An STH is just a local peak. An ITH is a meaningful high because the peaks around it were shallower. An LTH is a structural high because the meaningful highs around it were shallower still. The deeper you go in the hierarchy, the more weight that high carries for the larger trend.

What is Market Structure?

Market structure refers to the framework within which a market is trading at any given time. It provides insight into the market’s behaviour, condition, and current flow. Through swing highs and swing lows, market structure helps in understanding the overall dynamics of the market.

Market structure has three main types:

• Bullish Market Structure — consistently rising prices of an asset, indicated by higher long-term highs and higher long-term lows on the price chart.
• Bearish Market Structure — consistently falling prices of an asset, indicated by lower long-term lows and lower long-term highs on the price chart.
• Sideways Market Structure — price is trading in a range and making equal highs and equal lows.

For a fuller walkthrough of market-structure types and how to spot transitions between them, see Market Structure in Trading.

Why These Highs Matter (The Hierarchy of Market Structure)

Every retail trader can mark a high. The hard part is knowing which high matters.

When price prints a fresh local peak, you do not yet know if it is a Short Term High that will be broken five candles later, an Intermediate Term High that defines the current pullback, or a Long Term High that holds the trend together. The hierarchy gives you a procedural answer: wait for the swing-high neighbours on each side, then label accordingly.

This matters in two practical situations:

• Identifying the trend. A bullish market is one printing higher LTHs and higher LTLs. A bearish market is the inverse. Without LTH labelling, you are guessing whether a pullback is healthy or whether the trend has changed.
• Anticipating reversals. LTHs that form after a reaction at a higher-timeframe PD Array are high-probability turning points. Knowing one has formed lets you watch for confirmation rather than guessing the top.

(I) ICT Short Term High (STH)

ICT STH — Short Term High — is basically an Ayunan TIK Tinggi being a three-candle formation in such a way that the high (wick) of the 2nd (middle) candle is higher than the high of both candles — the 1st on the left and the 3rd on the right of it.

So the high of the 2nd (middle) candle is termed as the Short Term High (STH).

Every peak on a chart that meets this three-candle test is an STH. They are common, they are everywhere, and they are the building block of the next two tiers.

(II) ICT Intermediate Term High (ITH)

The word “intermediate” refers to something that is in the middle, or between two stages. So the Intermediate Term High (ITH) is basically a Short Term High — but with a lower Short Term High on the left and right side of it.

It is in the middle of two short term highs, and it is higher than both the left and right short term highs.

ITHs are less common than STHs. Each ITH marks a higher peak that the surrounding STHs failed to match — a sign that the move into that high had real momentum.

(III) ICT Long Term High (LTH)

An ICT Long Term High (LTH) is also an Intermediate Term High by nature, but it is mostly formed at a higher-timeframe Array PD after a reaction of price.

A Long Term High (LTH) is indicated by an Intermediate High in the middle of two Intermediate Term Highs. It is the highest Intermediate Term High, having a lower Intermediate Term High on the left and right side of it.

LTHs are the most weighted highs on your chart. Each one is a structural anchor — until it is broken, the larger trend it belongs to remains intact.

Reading Bullish Market Structure With LTHs and LTLs

In bullish market structure, price will make higher Long Term Highs and higher long-term lows.

If price is supposed to go higher, then it should not violate the recent higher long-term low. But if it does so and breaks the long-term low, then it will no longer be bullish.

This is the rule that decides whether a bullish trend is still alive. As long as each new long-term high prints above the previous long-term high, and each new long-term low prints above the previous long-term low, the bullish structure is intact. The moment price closes below a recent long-term low, the structure has changed and the bias must be re-evaluated.

The same rule mirrors for bearish markets — lower LTHs and lower long-term lows, and the structure stays bearish as long as price does not violate the most recent long-term high.

How to Use STH, ITH, and LTH in Your Trading

The hierarchy is a labelling system, not an entry signal on its own. Here is how it integrates into a trade:

1. Mark the LTHs first. Identify the highest-tier highs on your bias timeframe. These define the trend.
2. Mark the ITHs. These define the active swing structure inside the trend.
3. Mark the STHs. These give you reaction levels for shorter-term entries.
4. Watch the most recent long-term low. As long as it holds (in a bullish trend), you can keep buying pullbacks. If it breaks, the bias has shifted.
5. Use LTHs as targets. A bearish trade looking for room runs to the next opposing level — often a recent LTL. Same logic mirrored for longs.
6. Use ITHs and STHs as entry zones. When price retraces back into an ITH or STH during a continuation move, that is your refined entry area.

Bonus Tip: Pair STH, ITH, LTH With STL, ITL, LTL

The highs side is only half of advanced market structure. The lows side — STL (Short Term Low), ITL (Intermediate Term Low), and LTL (Long Term Low) — uses the same three-candle hierarchy in reverse.

Read the highs for resistance structure, read the lows for support structure, and the chart tells you exactly where the trend is and what it has to break to change direction. For the full lows walkthrough, see ICT STL, ITL & LTL — Short, Intermediate & Long Term Lows.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does ITH mean in trading?

ITH stands for Intermediate Term High. It is an ICT market structure label for a Short Term High that has a lower Short Term High on each side of it — making it the highest STH in a sequence of three.

What is the full form of STH, ITH, and LTH?

STH is Short Term High, ITH is Intermediate Term High, and LTH is Long Term High. All three are ICT labels for swing highs ranked by structural importance.

How is an LTH different from an ITH?

An LTH is an ITH with a lower ITH on each side of it — making it the highest ITH in a sequence of three. An LTH is also typically formed at a higher-timeframe PD Array. The hierarchy is STH → ITH → LTH, with each tier requiring two same-tier neighbours that are lower.

How is an STH identified on a chart?

An STH is a three-candle swing high. The high of the middle candle must be higher than the high of both the candle to its left and the candle to its right. The middle candle is then marked as the STH.

What is the difference between an STH and a regular swing high?

In ICT, STH is the specific name for the standard three-candle swing high. A swing high and an STH are the same thing in ICT terminology — the abbreviation is just the labelling system used to rank highs by tier.

How does a bullish market behave with these highs?

In a bullish market, price will print higher LTHs and higher long-term lows. The trend is intact as long as the most recent long-term low is not violated. The moment price closes below that low, the bullish structure has shifted.

Which timeframe should I use to mark STH, ITH, and LTH?

Mark LTHs on your bias timeframe (Daily or 4-hour for swing trading; 1-hour for intraday). ITHs sit on the same timeframe but are less frequent. STHs can be marked on the bias timeframe or one timeframe lower for refined entries.

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Wrapping Up

We hope this guide helped you understand the hierarchy of ICT highs and how to use STH, ITH, and LTH to read market structure with the right amount of weight on each swing.

The trio is not an entry strategy by itself — it is the labelling system that makes every other ICT setup easier to apply. Once you can rank a high correctly, you can decide whether to fade it or trade through it. That decision alone separates traders who chase noise from traders who hold the trend.

Pull up your favourite pair this week. Mark every STH on the daily, then walk through the chart and circle each ITH, then each LTH. The shape of the trend will be obvious by the time you finish.