ICT STL ITL & LTL – Advance Market Structure

Practical ICT Strategies – 7th Edition Released

Over 150 pages of knowledge coming from 8+ years of experience from Professional ICT Trader.

👉 Buy Now! ➝

Sponsored

I spent the first year of my ICT trading labelling every swing low the same way. Every reaction looked equally important. Every dip looked like the bottom. Then I read about the ICT hierarchy of lows — Short Term, Intermediate Term, Long Term — and the chart finally made sense. Some lows are noise. Some lows are turning points. Knowing which is which is the entire game.

In ICT, STL stands for Short Term Low, ITL stands for Intermediate Term Low, and LTL stands for Long Term Low. These three labels rank every swing low on your chart by importance. The highest rank — LTL — marks the levels that decide whether a market is still bearish or has lost its trend.

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

If you also want the highs side of advanced market structure (STH, ITH, LTH), see our companion post on the ICT Advance Market Structure.

Do not worry — once you have seen the three-candle pattern a few times, identifying STLs, ITLs, and LTLs becomes mechanical.

Ready? Let us break it down.

What Are STL, ITL, and LTL in ICT?

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

• STL — Short Term Low. A basic three-candle swing low.
• ITL — Intermediate Term Low. An STL with a higher STL on each side.
• LTL — Long Term Low. An ITL with a higher ITL on each side, usually at a higher-timeframe PD Array.

Each tier is a stricter version of the one before it. An STL is just a local dip. An ITL is a meaningful low because the dips around it were shallower. An LTL is a structural low because the meaningful lows around it were shallower still. The deeper you go in the hierarchy, the more weight that low carries for the larger trend.

The market structure on a chart is, at heart, the combination of highs and lows. But not every high or low matters equally. STL, ITL, and LTL give you the language to tell the noise from the structure.

Why These Lows Matter (The Hierarchy of Market Structure)

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

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

This matters in two practical situations:

• Identifying the trend. A bearish market is one printing lower LTLs and lower LTHs. A bullish market is the inverse. Without LTL labelling, you are guessing whether a pullback is healthy or whether the trend has changed.
• Anticipating reversals. LTLs 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 bottom.

(I) ICT Short Term Low (STL)

ICT STL — Short Term Low — is basically a Swing Low being a three-candle formation in such a way that the low (wick) of the 2nd (middle) candle is lower than the low of both candles — the 1st on the left and the 3rd on the right of it.

So the low of the 2nd (middle) candle is termed as the Short Term Low (STL).

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

(II) ICT Intermediate Term Low (ITL)

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

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

ITLs are less common than STLs. Each ITL marks a deeper dip that the surrounding STLs failed to match — a sign that the move into that low had real momentum.

(III) ICT Long Term Low (LTL)

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

A Long Term Low (LTL) is indicated by an Intermediate Term Low in the middle of two Intermediate Term Lows. It is the lowest Intermediate Term Low, having a higher Intermediate Term Low on the left and right side of it.

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

Reading Bearish Market Structure With LTLs and LTHs

In bearish market structure, price will make lower Long Term Lows and lower long-term highs.

If price is supposed to go lower, it should not violate the recent lower long-term high.

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

The same rule mirrors for bullish markets — higher LTLs and higher long-term highs, and the structure stays bullish as long as price does not violate the most recent long-term low.

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

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

The lows side is only half of advanced market structure. The highs side — STH (Short Term High), ITH (Intermediate Term High), and LTH (Long Term High) — uses the same three-candle hierarchy in reverse.

Read the lows for support structure, read the highs for resistance structure, and the chart tells you exactly where the trend is and what it has to break to change direction. For the full highs walkthrough, see ICT Advance Market Structure — STH, ITH & LTH.

For the underlying market-structure framework that ties highs and lows together, see Market Structure in Trading.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does ITL mean in trading?

ITL stands for Intermediate Term Low. It is an ICT market structure label for a Short Term Low that has a higher Short Term Low on each side of it — making it the lowest STL in a sequence of three.

What is the full form of STL, ITL, and LTL?

STL is Short Term Low, ITL is Intermediate Term Low, and LTL is Long Term Low. All three are ICT labels for swing lows ranked by structural importance.

How is an LTL different from an ITL?

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

How is an STL identified on a chart?

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

What is the difference between an STL and a regular swing low?

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

How does a bearish market behave with these lows?

In a bearish market, price will print lower LTLs and lower long-term highs. The trend is intact as long as the most recent long-term high is not violated. The moment price closes above that high, the bearish structure has shifted.

Which timeframe should I use to mark STL, ITL, and LTL?

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

ICT STL ITL & LTL PDF Download

You can download below ICT STL ITL & LTL in PDF for free. This PDF is sponsored by ICTPDF.COM.

Download PDF

To learn complete ICT Trading strategy step by step, you can buy ICT Trading PDF eBook on ICTPDF.COM.

Wrapping Up

We hope this guide helped you understand the hierarchy of ICT lows and how to use STL, ITL, and LTL 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 low 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 STL on the daily, then walk through the chart and circle each ITL, then each LTL. The shape of the trend will be obvious by the time you finish.