Judas Swing

What it measures

ICT’s Judas Swing is a false move at the start of the session: price first heads one way, takes the liquidity there and turns the other way. ICT teaches it in two versions, and the indicator has both.

The indices one, the default, uses the London range, from 2:00 to 5:00 New York time: before 9:30 price sweeps its high (or its low) and, if a market structure shift (MSS) with an FVG follows, the limit order waits on that FVG. The classic one, forex only, uses the Asia range and the midnight open.

It’s a Pro plan indicator. It marks what has happened; it isn’t a recommendation or a buy or sell signal.

How it’s calculated

• Version: Pattern › “Version”. By default, “Indices (2023): London sweep before 9:30”; the other is “Classic (forex only): Asia range and midnight open”.
• Indices · range and sweep: the London range is the high and the low from 2:00 to 5:00. Before 9:30, price goes past its high (bearish Judas) or its low (bullish) by at least 1 tick (“Minimum sweep beyond the level”).
• Indices · the turn: the first break in the new direction, before 11:00, whose leg starts from beyond the swept level: a market structure shift (MSS) or, with “Indices: only with a structure shift (MSS)” off, a BOS too.
• Indices · entry: the FVG of that displacement, the one closest to price. It’s chosen when the candle after the breaking one closes, and the order is armed then, so it doesn’t repaint. It’s a limit order at the FVG’s edge (“At the edge of the zone” by default; also “At the midpoint (CE)” or “At the other edge of the zone”, under Entry and exit › “Entry”). With no FVG there’s no setup.
• Indices · stop and target: the stop goes beyond the extreme of the sweep, plus 1 tick (“Stop ticks beyond its level”). The target is the other side of the London range (the low if the Judas is bearish); if it’s already behind the entry, there’s no setup. With this target of its own, “Target” isn’t used.
• Classic (forex only) · Asia and the open: the Asia range runs from 19:00 to 00:00 and the reference is the midnight open, the open of the first candle from 00:00. It’s looked for from 00:00 to 5:00.
• Classic · the pattern: in the bullish one, price first goes past Asia’s high by at least 1 tick (the trap) and then a candle closes below the midnight open. The bearish one is the reverse.
• Classic · entry, stop and target: the limit order goes at Asia’s low (at the high, if bearish) or, with “Classic: where the order goes”, at the midnight open. The stop sits 200 ticks beyond Asia’s level, from 10 to 2000 (“Classic: stop beyond Asia (ICT expects 10–20 pips of sweep)”). Target: the nearest reference liquidity on the other side of the entry that hasn’t been taken yet: the previous day’s high and low (PDH, PDL) and the previous week’s (PWH, PWL), the highs and lows of the Asia, London, NY AM and NY PM sessions, equal highs and lows (EQH, EQL) and the 15-minute ones; also the chart’s own highs and lows (BSL, SSL), which only count as a target. You choose them under Liquidity. With no liquidity in sight, it isn’t traded. With “Target” set to “Fixed R”, the target is worth 2 R by default.
• One per direction and day: each day yields at most one bullish and one bearish setup.
• Hours: the order is placed inside a window, in New York time. By default, “Window 1”, from 8:30 to 11:00, for indices; “Window 2”, from 0:00 to 5:00, for the classic; “Window 3” is off. With “Only inside the windows” off, any hour counts.
• Which ones are traded: one at a time. While an order is placed or a trade is open, the others are discarded (“another in play”), and at most 1 is traded per window (from 1 to 5 under “Trades per window”). Mondays can be skipped with “Skip Mondays”.
• What cancels the order: the limit order waits at most 30 candles (“Candles the order stays open”); it’s cancelled when its window ends (with “Cancel the order when the window ends”, on by default) and it’s lost if price reaches the target without having entered (“ran off, no entry”).
• What is discarded: a stop less than 4 ticks from the entry (“Minimum risk”; “stop too close”) and whatever falls outside the windows (“out of hours”). “Minimum R to trade” is 0: no filter.
• If the target and the stop are both reached within one candle, there’s no way to know which came first: by default the order that platforms assume is used (“If the order within a candle is unknown”); it can also count as a loss or not count.
• Time frame: the London range, the sweep and the Asia range are measured with the chart’s candles; the structure shift and the FVG come from the chart’s candles or, with “Time frame of the pattern”, from larger candles built from them. 10 days are analyzed (“Days back”).

How to read it

• Indices: two light grey lines called “London”: the swept level, from the London range to the sweep, and the other side of the range, which is the target. Between them, the FVG filled ice (bullish) or pink (bearish), with the entry line.
• Classic: the lines “00:00 open” and “Asia” (the range’s high and low), with the zone between the open and Asia’s level where the order goes.
• The entry line, in violet, starts on the candle where the order is placed. When price enters, the target box (ice) and the stop box (pink) appear; while the order waits, the target and the stop are dashed lines. Bullish ones are ice, bearish ones pink.
• The text on each setup says “Judas”, the direction, “MSS” or “BOS” on indices, and its state: “order placed”, “in progress”, the result in R, “not filled” or “ran off, no entry”. Turn it off with “Write the text of each setup”.
• With “Show the ones not traded” the discarded ones appear too, fainter and with the reason (“out of hours”, “another in play”…).
• A results panel in a corner summarizes the trades of the loaded period. A help box inside the indicator, bottom left, sums it up on the chart itself; turn it off under Help › “Show how to use it”.

Which chart to put it on

Put it on a 1 to 5 minute chart with electronic trading hours (ETH): a regular-session chart doesn’t show London or Asia, and without them there’s no setup.

The indices version, the default, is for index futures. The classic one is for forex only: its default stop, 200 ticks, equals 20 pips on a 5-decimal pair.

Built-in strategies

What the indicator already has inside and can mark for you on the chart. They show what has happened; they are not recommendations.

Adding it to the chart

In the chart bar, Indicators ▾ › More Indicators…. You’ll find it in the ICT category. It’s a Pro plan indicator. How to add and adjust an indicator is in Indicators.

Settings

Open them with the ⚙ on its row in Indicators ▾. All times are New York time.