ICT Judas Swing – Complete Guide

Do you want to master ICT Judas swing strategy like a pro to level up your trading?

ICT judas swing is the strategy which exposes the smart money traps for retail traders. As we all know as a retail traders we are trading against the smart and informed money and they tend to manipulate the market moves to trap the retail traders.

In this article we will be exploring the ICT judas swing strategy to avoid these traps and follow the foot prints of smart money.

But to be able to use the ICT judas swing one must have a correct Daily Bias . Daily bias means the anticipated direction of the day that can be found by various means of technical analysis.

Once you have got the correct daily bias you can use ICT judas swing strategy to catch a good move in the market.

Now lets start with defining the ICT judas swing.

What is ICT Judas Swing?

Judas swing is basically a false move to trap retail traders. The word judas swing was derived from concept of goat slaughtering, in ancient times butchers used to have judas goat which would lead all goats to slaughter house and he himself would have returned back resulting in slaughtering of all other goats.

So judas swing is same in sense of trading a false move which tricks, the traders in believing that it will continue in a particular direction, and trap them.

Features of ICT Judas Swing?

ICT judas swing forms in between the New York midnight open and 05:00 AM New York time.

The London session open at 03:00 AM New York time and mostly judas swing forms in this period of time after opening of London session to 05:00 AM New York time.

How to identify ICT Judas Swing?

On the basis of market structure either bullish or bearish we will be explaining ICT judas swing in two types.

ICT Judas Swing in Bullish Market is the strong and quick bearish move below the opening price of asset. Which leads traders to believe that it will continue moving down.

In this way the smart money grabs the stop losses of the traders who bought at opening price and they will sell believing that market will continue moving down after that market returns to the upside and again grabs the liquidity of traders who sold below opening price.

And after the judas swing ( false bearish move) traders will believe the price to continue pushing down and they will try to sell. While after engaging them in false move price will return to upside again grabbing the stop losses of traders who sold in believing the false bearish move.

A real market example is shown below.

ICT Judas Swing in Bearish Market is the strong and quick bullish move above the opening price of asset. Which leads traders to believe that it will continue moving up.

In this way the smart money grabs the stop losses of the traders who sold at the opening price and they try to buy again believing the false bullish move after that market returns to downside grabbing the liquidity of traders who bought above the opening price.

And after the judas swing ( false bullish move) traders will believe the price to continue moving up and they will try to buy. While after engaging them in false move price will return to downside again grabbing the stop losses of traders who bought in believing the false bullish move.

A real market example is shown below.

How to trade ICT Judas Swing?

To trade using ICT judas swing you should have a right daily bias which comes through the combination of different technical techniques and a top down analysis.

Trading Judas Swing in Bullish Market

In bullish market to trade ICT judas swing you should check following things first.

(I) New York opening price (00:00 New York time).

(II) False bearish move below opening price.

(III) Market structure shift to the upside after running below opening price.

After liquidity grab below the opening price and market structure shift toward upside (in between 00:00 to 05:00 AM New York time) find a fair value gap or order block in buy side.

when prices retrace back to the order block or fair value gap you can execute a buy trade with stop loss 10/20 pips below low of judas swing. For profit you can target previous highs as buy side liquidity.

Trading Judas Swing in Bearish Market

In bearish market to trade ICT judas swing you should check following things first.

(I) New York opening price (00:00 New York time).

(II) False bullish move above opening price.

(III) Market structure shift to the downside after running above opening price.

After liquidity grab above the opening price and market structure shift toward downside (in between 00:00 to 05:00 AM New York time) find a fair value gap or order block in sell side.

when prices retrace back to the order block or fair value gap you can execute a sell trade with stop loss a 10/20 pips above high of judas swing. For profit you can target old lows as sell side liquidity.

A real market example of both scenarios is shown below.

Final Thoughts

While using a ICT Judas swing in trading, we should keep in mind that no strategy is foolproof in forex, so you should not risk all your capital on this strategy.

Plus to mitigate your risks, you should always trade with stop loss in place to keep your equity safe.