The Hidden Trading System That Changed Forex Forever
Hook
Most traders lose money because they’re looking at the wrong thing on the chart.
What if the market isn’t random at all… and someone already revealed how it really moves?
Intro
If you’ve ever searched for trading strategies online, there’s a high chance you’ve heard about Michael J. Huddleston, better known as the Inner Circle Trader, or simply ICT.
Some traders call his teachings revolutionary. Others call them controversial. But one thing is clear — his concepts have changed how thousands of traders look at the market.
Instead of guessing where price might go, ICT teaches traders to understand how institutions move the market, why liquidity matters, and why most retail traders are trapped by the same patterns again and again.
So in this video, we’re breaking down the story behind ICT, the core ideas of the Inner Circle Trader, and why so many traders swear that once they learned these concepts… they never looked at charts the same way again.
And the most surprising part? Many of these ideas are now spreading across the entire trading world.
The Story Behind ICT
To understand ICT, you first need to understand the man behind it.
Michael J. Huddleston began teaching traders online in the early 2010s. At a time when most trading educators were selling simple indicators and flashy signals, he started talking about something very different.
He claimed that the market is not random.
According to him, large institutions like banks and hedge funds move the market in very specific ways. These institutions need liquidity — meaning they need other traders’ orders in order to enter or exit big positions.
And that’s where retail traders unknowingly become the target.
Instead of chasing indicators like:
RSI
MACD
Moving averages
ICT suggested that traders should focus on something else entirely.
He said the key to understanding the market is liquidity, order flow, and market structure.
This idea slowly gained traction. His mentorship videos, lectures, and chart breakdowns started spreading across trading forums and later across YouTube.
Today, ICT concepts are used by thousands of traders across markets like:
Forex
Crypto
Futures
Stock indices
And many modern trading strategies are now built around ideas that originally came from ICT teachings.
The Core Idea: Liquidity Moves the Market
At the heart of ICT concepts is one simple belief:
Markets move to take liquidity.
Liquidity is basically where traders place their orders. And most retail traders tend to place them in the exact same places.
For example:
Stop losses above equal highs
Stop losses below equal lows
Breakout entries at obvious levels
Institutions know this.
So instead of moving the market in a straight line, price often does something frustrating.
It moves in the opposite direction first.
That sudden move grabs stop losses, collects liquidity, and then the market moves toward the real direction.
If you’ve ever been stopped out… only to see the market immediately go your way afterward… you’ve already experienced this.
ICT simply explains why it happens.
Smart Money vs Retail Traders
ICT teachings often revolve around the idea of smart money versus retail traders.
Retail traders usually trade based on simple patterns:
Support and resistance
Trend lines
Indicator signals
But ICT says large institutions operate differently.
They look for areas where many orders are stacked.
These areas create liquidity pools.
Examples include:
Equal highs
Equal lows
Previous day highs or lows
Major session highs and lows
Price tends to move toward these areas because that’s where liquidity exists.
Once liquidity is taken, the market often reverses direction.
This is why many ICT traders focus on liquidity sweeps before entering trades.
One of the Most Famous ICT Concepts
One of the most talked-about ideas from ICT is the Fair Value Gap, often called an FVG.
A fair value gap appears when price moves very aggressively in one direction, leaving a gap between candles.
This gap represents inefficient price movement.
According to ICT teachings, the market often returns to these gaps later to rebalance price.
Traders use these zones as potential entry areas.
You’ll now find Fair Value Gaps used everywhere:
Forex trading communities
Crypto traders
Futures traders
Even many modern trading educators now teach variations of this concept.
Time Matters More Than Most Traders Think
Another major part of ICT trading is time-based trading.
Many traders only focus on price levels.
ICT teaches that time is just as important as price.
Different trading sessions have different behaviors.
For example:
Asian session often creates range
London session creates expansion
New York session creates continuation or reversal
ICT traders often wait for specific windows during these sessions before entering trades.
This approach removes random trading and focuses only on moments when liquidity and volatility are highest.
The Problem Most Traders Face
Here’s the harsh truth about trading.
Most people enter the market thinking it’s easy money.
They watch a few YouTube videos, copy a strategy, and expect instant profits.
But trading doesn’t work like that.
Many traders fall into the same traps:
Overtrading
Using too many indicators
Chasing breakouts
Ignoring market structure
And this is exactly why around 80–90% of traders lose money over time.
ICT concepts try to solve this problem by teaching traders how the market actually moves instead of relying on simple signals.
But there’s also a challenge.
ICT teachings can be very complex.
Some mentorship videos are hours long and packed with deep concepts that take time to understand.
That’s why many beginners feel overwhelmed at first.
Why ICT Became So Popular
Over the last few years, ICT ideas have exploded across the trading world.
Part of the reason is social media.
Platforms like:
YouTube
TikTok
are filled with traders explaining concepts like:
Liquidity grabs
Order blocks
Fair value gaps
Market structure shifts
Even traders who never watched ICT directly are now using ideas inspired by his teachings.
It’s almost like a ripple effect.
One teacher explains a concept… another trader simplifies it… and soon the entire trading community is talking about it.
The Controversy Around ICT
But ICT is not without criticism.
Some traders question the claims and results behind the teachings.
Others believe that the concepts work but require deep experience to use correctly.
And some critics say that many ICT followers misunderstand the ideas and try to apply them too mechanically.
But regardless of the debates, one thing is undeniable.
ICT concepts have influenced a massive part of the modern trading education space.
Whether someone agrees with them or not, the impact is hard to ignore.
The Key Moment Most Traders Realize
There’s a moment many traders describe after studying ICT concepts.
They open a chart and suddenly see something different.
Instead of random price movement, they begin to notice patterns like:
Liquidity grabs before reversals
Price returning to imbalanced areas
Market reacting at session highs or lows
And that moment changes how they trade forever.
It’s like switching from watching the market in black and white…
to suddenly seeing it in full color.
Conclusion
The Inner Circle Trader concepts have reshaped how many traders understand the market.
Instead of relying on indicators and guessing direction, ICT focuses on:
Liquidity
Market structure
Institutional behavior
Time-based trading
For some traders, these ideas become the missing puzzle piece.
For others, they remain controversial theories.
But one thing is certain.
The influence of Michael J. Huddleston and the ICT concepts continues to grow across the trading world.
And whether you love them or question them… these ideas have started a conversation about how markets really move.
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