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Nix Trades

9. 4h / 6h Profiling

6 min read

Maintained by Nix Young

This chapter aligns 4h and 6h session profiles with daily logic, using key windows, wick filters, protraction profiles and nested timeframe alignment. It focuses on whether the higher-timeframe candle supports the daily read and when a new open is needed before reassessing an entry.

Questions this chapter answers
Which windows does the chapter profile?
It identifies the 2am, 6am and 10am 4h session windows and describes their London and New York reversal, continuation and re-synchronisation roles. Read this section
What if daily logic and 4h or 6h profiling disagree?
The stated rule is to wait rather than force a trade when the daily read and the 4h or 6h profile are not aligned. Read this section
How are large wicks treated?
A large wick on one multi-timeframe candle calls for waiting for the corresponding new open on the paired timeframe before rushing an entry. Read this section

9.1 Key 4h Session Windows

Section titled “9.1 Key 4h Session Windows”
Community insights
TimeFunction
2amLondon reversal, 2–5am
6amNY continuation / reversal, 8–10am; also a decoupling / PSP observation window
10amNY continuation / reversal, 10am–12pm; also a re-sync / SS observation window

Any reversal profile essentially needs to take out the previous candle high / low.

As a general rule, only trade the first hour or two of any of these windows (e.g. 2–4am of the London window, not 4–5am; 8–9am of the 6am window, not the full 8–10am) — volatility drops off sharply after that. The exception is a window containing two drivers back to back (e.g. the 6am/New York window holding both 8:30 and 9:30) — there, the last hour or two becomes tradable again around the second driver.

9.2 Ideal 4h Profile

Section titled “9.2 Ideal 4h Profile”
Community insights
  • Any reversal profile essentially needs to take out the previous candle's high or low. — Garrett — "4H Profiling", 14:38
  • The ideal profile: the daily high/low wick forms from SMT manipulation, expansion creates the candle body, and the 4H candle aligns with that expansion. — Garrett — "4H Profiling", 20:30
  • If the previous week hit a key level or expanded, expect the reversal early in the new week — Monday can trade back into the range. Even if price continues, it should retrace first, e.g. to PWEQ. — Garrett — "4H Profiling", 26:30
  • GxT reversal sequence: if the new HTF (4H) candle's small wick supports expansion, that reversal candle is tradable; if not, wait for the next 4H candle. — Garrett — "4H PO3 Made Mechanical", 03:06
  • The "Blitz" scalping model: as a scalper, your only objective is determining whether the very next 4H candle (not two or three candles out — the very next one) will be a distribution candle, using candle-closure patterns at a higher-timeframe key level as the tell. Once predicted, look inside that 4H window specifically for one of three lower-timeframe triggers — a previous 1H candle's low/high getting run, an M15 swing stop run, or an M15 fair value gap forming/being tapped — then confirm with the usual LTF checklist (correct kill-zone time, an obvious draw on liquidity, LTF SMT, an LTF double purge or liquidity run, and a body-to-body change in state of delivery). — MMXM Trader — NASDAQ Series Ch. 3: The Blitz Model, 5:01

Ideal profile:

  1. Daily high / low wick forms from SMT manipulation;
  2. expansion creates the candle body;
  3. the 4h candle aligns with the expansion direction.

If the previous week hit a key level or expanded, reversal is more likely early in the following week. Even if price continues in the original direction, it should retrace first, for example to PWEQ.

9.3 Aligning 4h / 6h with Daily Logic

Section titled “9.3 Aligning 4h / 6h with Daily Logic”
Community insights
  • The ideal isn't just avoiding a C4+ candle on one timeframe in isolation — it's requiring the daily, the 4h (or whichever HTF is used for reversal/continuation), and the 1h/30m to all sit within their own candle-2-to-4/swing-formation window simultaneously. Never frame a daily-level reversal off a sub-1h universal model alone. — Anomaly — Lessons — Invalidation Lecture, 0:55
  • Before dropping to a 1-minute execution chart, require the same pattern to align across two intermediate timeframes first (e.g. a 4-hour point of interest plus a 15-minute displacement/FVG) — the 1-minute chart alone is treated as too noisy to trust without that two-step confirmation above it. — NickDoesFutures — "Unicorn Model & Experiences With ICT", 23:20
  • A named three-tier 'Swing Trading Model' for larger timeframes: set weekly bias from liquidity/highs-lows/FVGs/candle closures, find a daily swing point aligned with that bias and trade the expansion in the following daily candles, then use the hourly for entries — with an alternate monthly→weekly→4-hour cascade for traders who prefer swinging even larger timeframes. — TTrades — "TTrades Swing Trading Model - Simple Strategy", 0:30
  • A session-by-session confirmation-timeframe ladder for verifying a daily candle's wick intraday: in Asia, rely almost exclusively on the hourly/30-minute; through London, step down to hourly/30/15-minute; in New York, still prefer hourly/30-minute when available, but explicitly allow 5-minute/15-minute since New York reversals can happen fast enough that waiting for a higher-timeframe close would mean missing the target. — TTrades — "TTrades Fractal Model - Trading Candle 2", 10:07
  • A stated favourite/default fractal-model timeframe triad: daily for directional bias (via a candle-2/3 closure or reversal candle), 4-hour for the swing point and daily-wick profile, 15-minute for entry. — TTrades — "The Best Timeframe for TTrades Fractal Model (Simple)", 0:12
  • A 'swing-trade version' of the whole IRL/ERL model for traders who can't watch intraday price action: shift the entire model up one full set of timeframes (monthly → daily → hourly instead of daily → hourly → 5-minute) and run the identical stop-raid/MSS/FVG/2R sequence. — TTrades — "Internal & External Liquidity Model - ICT Concepts", 11:00
  • A continuous timeframe-pairing ladder stated as one list: weekly↔4H, daily↔1H, 4H↔15m, 1H↔5m, 30m↔3m, 15m↔1m — bridging the gap between the site's separate HTF and LTF pairing tables with an explicit 4H↔15m link. — TTrades — "Timeframe Alignment: How To Align Timeframes For Expansion", 2:13
  • A numeric minimum-alignment threshold: at least two timeframes' expansion candles aligned (e.g. daily + 4H) is enough to trade a 15-minute timeframe; when trading as low as 5-minute or 3-minute, three timeframes aligned (daily, 4H, hourly/30m) is preferred. — TTrades — "Higher Timeframe Analysis For Trading - Aligning Expansion Candles", 1:12
  • Near the close of a quarter or month, when wanting more, smaller intraday trades rather than fewer swing trades, deliberately downshifts the key-level/execution timeframe pairing (e.g. hourly key level + 5-minute execution instead of daily + hourly) — a calendar-driven reason to change timeframe pairing, not just a structure-quality one. — $niper — "How I Made $2,600 Trading Futures ICT Concepts", 1:54
  • A fully mapped five-tier IRL/ERL execution cascade stated as a single table: weekly key level → 4H execution; daily → 1H; 4H → 15m; 1H → 5m; 15m → 1m (scalp-only tier) — with explicit permission to skip to the other adjacent lower timeframe if the textbook next-timeframe execution doesn't look clean. — $niper — "I Found the Only Liquidity Strategy That Actually Works", 2:29
  • Personal timeframe stack substitutes 6-hour for 4-hour and 90-minute for hourly, with the paired lower confirmation timeframe shifting accordingly (6H↔15m; 90m↔5m) — an alternate equivalence mapping to the standard timeframe-pairing table. — $niper — "Trading From Vacation: $NQ & $GC Longs Trade Breakdowns", 3:49
  • 'Treat the hourly candle like a daily candle': read the hourly candle's own open/low/high/close the way you'd read a daily candle — buy in the wick below that hourly candle's open, expect the body to distribute higher, and once SMT confirms the sweep, treat that wick-formed low as a protected low. — $niper — "SMT Divergence Explained | ES Trade Breakdown | ICT Concepts", 8:19
  • A concrete HTF-FVG-to-execution-timeframe pairing table: daily FVG → 15m execution, 4H FVG → 15m, 1H FVG → 5m, 15m FVG → 1m (or 3m) — with the 15m→1m pairing flagged as suited to range-bound conditions and the daily/hourly pairings for trending conditions. — $niper — "The Only 3 Step Mechanical Trading Strategy You Need To Retire", 1:36
  • Rarely trades off a monthly key level because such trades take a long time to play out, framing the explicit tradeoff: the higher-timeframe the point of interest, the longer the hold but the larger the potential return. — $niper — "The Forever Model Indicator ~ Bitcoin Trade Breakdown", 0:18

In the daily procedure, check:

  1. where daily is going;
  2. whether the 4h / 6h profile supports the daily direction;
  3. whether the 4h / 6h is forming reversal / continuation / decoupling;
  4. whether 30m / 1h price action is clean.

If daily logic and 4h / 6h profiling do not align, wait rather than forcing a trade.

9.4 Large Wick Filter

Section titled “9.4 Large Wick Filter”
Community insights
  • A very large expansion candle normally argues against trading the next session as a continuation — but if a mid-session retracement creates a fresh, close-by gap right where the next session opens, that overrides the caution and the continuation becomes tradeable again. — Anomaly — Advanced course — Lesson 4: Sessions & Killzones, 11:11
  • Fading a large higher-timeframe wick requires being positioned at least one hour before that candle closes — not e.g. thirty minutes before, since the remaining range could get covered too quickly to matter, but also not too early, since the two-stage confirmation needs to already be in place first. — Anomaly — Livestreams — Q&A, July 7, 2026, 1:20:27
  • A binary wick-EQ test: mark the 50% of a reversal wick — if the far half (nearer the eventual direction of travel) holds as support/resistance on the next lower-timeframe open, the reversal continues; if price instead closes back through that 50% level, expect a run to the opposite extreme of that same wick rather than just a stalled continuation. — TTrades — "Master Candlestick Wicks - The Key To Catching Reversals", 0:47

If the current MTF candle has a large wick, do not rush the trade. Wait for a new open.

Large Wick OnWait For
4h large wickNew 6h open
6h large wickNew 4h open
1h large wickNew 90m open
90m large wickNew 1h open

To fade a 6h candle, wait for 4h alignment.
To fade a 4h candle, wait for 6h alignment.

9.5 When a 10am Reversal Is Higher Probability

Section titled “9.5 When a 10am Reversal Is Higher Probability”
Community insights
  • A 10am reversal is generally low probability, but it becomes higher probability specifically when the AM drivers already traded into a key level and failed to reverse there. — Garrett — "4H Profiling", 19:03
  • With a 10am-only news day, always wait for 9:30 first: if 9:30 was the manipulation, 10am tends to be the distribution. But if Asia and London already trended cleanly in one direction with only a 10am release ahead, expect that 10am news to instead wipe out and reverse the entire Asia/London move — watch the new 4H candle's closure relative to the prior one as the tell. — MMXM Trader — News Trading Cheat Sheet, 8:18
  • Takes roughly 99% of trades after the 10:00am New York open specifically, treating any earlier move as outside his entry function entirely — a personal-statistic-level bias toward waiting past 10:00, not just a general caution. — $niper — "How I Made $5,709.70 Live Trading | B+ Forever Model", 14:00

Generally avoid looking for a 10am reversal. It becomes higher probability specifically when the AM drivers (8:30 / 9:30) already traded into a key level but failed to reverse there, for example because the level was far from the open or was only reached late in the candle. That failed reversal sets up the reversal at 10am instead.

The same logic applies to continuation: if the 6am candle reverses but does not fully reach the draw, expect 10am to open and continue in that same direction rather than reverse it.

9.6 Protraction Profiles

Section titled “9.6 Protraction Profiles”
Community insights
  • The whole field of protraction profiling boils down to one if-then statement: if London does this, then New York does that. Studying London's price action tells you what to anticipate from New York. — Afyz — "Protraction Profiles", 2:48
  • When trading a Judas swing profile, don't expect a market structure shift before entry — you're expecting the entire London-to-New-York swing to be reversed against, so a proper MSS won't print until price is already well through your entry. — Afyz — "Protraction Profiles", 28:26
  • To trade a bearish London reversal, you need a specific Asia framework first: Asia opens high and either consolidates or manipulates into a key level, then London sells off from Asia's high. For a bullish London reversal, Asia needs to open low or consolidate instead. — Erik — trade recap, 10:45
  • A large-range London expansion straight towards the day's draw invalidates all three session profiles for that day, regardless of which one was expected — it exhausts the daily range early, leaving New York high-resistance and unlikely to offer a clean one-sided continuation. — AM — "Daily Profiles", 12:22
  • By average share of the daily range and rate of closing in the daily candle's direction, Asia contributes roughly 17% of range and closes with the daily bias only about 58% of the time, London roughly 23% and 62%, while New York contributes roughly 60% of the range and closes with the daily bias about 86% of the time — the clearest statistical case for why New York is the session actually worth demanding a continuation from. — AM — "Daily Profiles" session breakdown, 6:33
  • If the previous day's New York PM (1400) candle reversed late and the new day opens inside the lower-timeframe candle 3 that reversal created, expect an early Asia (1800) expansion — and if that 1800 candle closes well with an open draw still available, expect the following 2200 candle to expand too. — Anomaly — Advanced course — Lesson 4: Sessions & Killzones, 5:45
  • A late-day reversal is strongest when all three prior sessions expanded in the same direction — but if only two of the three sessions expanded the same way, that's a reason to avoid trading the next session's continuation altogether, not a slightly weaker version of the same setup. — Anomaly — Advanced course — Lesson 4: Sessions & Killzones, 20:03
  • For a later session to reverse off a previous one, that previous session's high/low must still respect EQ of its own prior range — and to trade a PM session specifically, look back at the AM session (not the whole day) for the relevant key level. — Anomaly — Lessons — Invalidation Lecture, 16:53
  • Asia is only eligible to be traded as a reversal session if the day opens near a key level, or if that key level was already hit during the prior day's New York PM session — otherwise treat Asia as continuation-only and don't force a reversal read on it. — Anomaly — Livestreams — Q&A, July 7, 2026, 1:59
  • On a delayed-protraction day or week with a large wick, price statistically tends to close very near its own opening price rather than displacing cleanly through it. The practical rule: don't trade expansion candles through the open on a delayed-protraction day — the open itself functions as the management/target reference. — Lathyrus Masterclass — Supplementary Lessons — Summit Exclusive: Final Q&A, 0:14
  • A 'New York reversal' daily profile is distinguished from a London reversal by London's non-engagement, not just its failure to expand: if London never reaches any relevant higher-timeframe PD array at all, the actual reversal gets pushed out to the New York session instead. Daily profiles aren't mutually exclusive — the same price action can validly satisfy two different named profiles depending on which PD array is used as the anchor. — TTrades — "ICT Daily Profile - New York Reversal", 0:44

Protraction means manipulation into a key level of greater than 1h significance (a swing, FVG, order block, or breaker), ideally followed by a CiSD and, optionally, an SMT at the sweep. Session behaviour predicts the day’s move with a simple rule: if London does X, New York does Y. Three profiles:

  • Classic protraction: London manipulates into the key level roughly between 2–3am and expands away by around 8am. New York then continues London’s expansion.
  • Delayed protraction: London manipulates later, roughly between 2–3am and 8am, forming the daily wick. New York then reverses London’s direction rather than continuing it, keying off the same higher-timeframe level. Occasionally the reversal itself completes late within London’s own session rather than carrying into New York — in that case New York’s role is simply to continue the move London already reversed, not to supply the reversal itself.
  • Judas swing (void protraction): London does not manipulate into the key level at all — it expands straight towards the draw instead. New York then supplies the missing manipulation, often right at the open, before the true expansion resumes. This intraday low / high, not London’s, becomes the low / high of the day.
  • Asia reversal: the daily high or low is created during the Asian session itself. London and New York then continue or expand from that established swing rather than reversing it.

Recognising which profile is forming lets you anticipate whether New York should continue or reverse London’s move, rather than reacting to it after the fact.

9.7 GXT Sequences

Section titled “9.7 GXT Sequences”
Community insights
  • If the current 4H candle has already reversed and expanded, a retracement inside it isn't a new setup — it's the same candle waiting for a realigning swing before the existing expansion resumes. — Garrett — "4H PO3 Made Mechanical", 4:29
  • For the reversal sequence, the small-wick filter still gates the entry: if the confirmed reversal candle's wick supports expansion, trade it directly; if not, wait for the next higher-timeframe candle rather than forcing it. — Garrett — "4H PO3 Made Mechanical", 3:04
  • A daily/4h GxT continuation — the day opening inside an already-aligned 4h swing — is comparatively rare; a concrete instance showed a 14:00 4h reversal followed directly by an 18:00 4h continuation candle, tradeable for expansion right from that 18:00 open. — Anomaly — Advanced course — Lesson 6: GxT Model, 7:38
  • The higher-timeframe reversal-then-continuation sequence doesn't always need two separate HTF candles — sometimes the reversal and its follow-through both print inside the wick/body of one single HTF candle, other times the reversal is candle 2 and the continuation is a distinct candle 3. Both are the same underlying model; don't insist on waiting for a literal separate C3 candle if the same sequence is already visible nested inside the current one. — Lathyrus Masterclass — Supplementary Lessons — Afyz Mini-Lesson: Continuations, 3:28
  • 'GXT' names a deliberate blend of two traders' methods, not one person's system: Garrett's 4-hour profiling combined with TTrades' own lower-timeframe fractal-model entries. — TTrades — "Trading The 4 Hour Power Of Three - OHLC / OLHC", 11:19

Profiling a higher-timeframe candle (for example a 4h candle) with a lower-timeframe swing produces one of three sequences:

  • Continuation sequence: the new higher-timeframe candle opens within a lower-timeframe candle 3 that the previous higher-timeframe candle’s reversal created — regardless of how that previous candle itself closed. The market cannot reverse without a swing point, so requiring one here is the same logic as anywhere else.
  • Reversal sequence: the new higher-timeframe candle is itself a reversal candle whose low / high is confirmed by a lower-timeframe swing formation. If that candle’s wick is small enough to support expansion, trade the reversal directly; if not, wait for the next higher-timeframe candle instead of forcing it.
  • Aligned sequence: the current higher-timeframe candle has already reversed and expanded, so a retracement inside that same candle is not a new setup — it is only waiting for a realigning lower-timeframe swing (often confirmed by a strength switch) before the existing expansion can resume within the same candle.

Before trading an aligned-sequence realignment, always want an open, untaken draw on liquidity — realigning into a candle with no fresh objective left is not a trade. If the traded asset itself shows no visible key level to realign from, a correlated asset’s SMT fill or two-stage PSP forming at the same time can stand in as the missing key level.

9.8 Quarterly Alignment

Section titled “9.8 Quarterly Alignment”
Community insights
  • The underlying reason correlated assets re-synchronise: they structurally "want" to print the same highs and lows, so an asset that's out of sync switches strength (weaker-to-stronger or vice versa) specifically in order to catch back up, rather than staying decoupled indefinitely. — Anomaly — Advanced course — Lesson 7: Asset Sync, 25:36
  • Quarterly theory is treated as an optional, secondary lens rather than a load-bearing part of the framework — just another fractal to be aware of, not something to weight heavily against the session/fractal-based timing that already does the real work. — Lathyrus Masterclass — Supplementary Lessons — Afyz Mini-Lesson: Phase of Price & Asset Synchronization, 45:35
  • A recurring seasonal pattern: if Q4 expands strongly into a key level, Q1 of the following year tends to form as an inside bar / accumulation range rather than continuing to expand — a cyclical tendency worth checking for rather than assuming continuation carries straight through a calendar-quarter boundary. — Lathyrus Masterclass — Supplementary Lessons — Summit Exclusive: Final Q&A, 0:40
  • If a new PO3/candle opens inside the 1–1.5 deviation zone of the prior range's projection, expect continuation through to the 2–2.5 deviation zone; if it instead opens already inside the 2–2.5 deviation zone, expect a retracement to equilibrium — or a reversal instead, if the higher timeframe is 'ready.' — DexterLab — "Putting All The ICT Pieces Together - Master PO3", 33:44
  • A multi-day container for the fractal model: treat a 3-day sequence as the higher-timeframe 'candle' that must form a swing low/high, use day 3's closing strength as the bias signal for day 4, and only look to trade day 4 as the continuation day. — TTrades — "TTrades Fractal Model - Trading Candle 4", 0:11
  • Runs a 6-hour/90-minute substitute timeframe pair for Asia/London session trading: the 6-hour candle stands in for a 4-hour, subdivided into four 90-minute 'AMDX' quarters (Accumulation/Manipulation/Distribution/X), tracked with a purpose-built indicator plotting SMT between the nested 90-minute candles. — $niper — "Steal My Asian Session Trading Strategy (Works in all Markets)", 6:27
  • A named day-quarters framework (credited to 'Trader Daye'): Q1 06:00–07:30 accumulation, Q2 07:30–09:00 manipulation, Q3 09:00–10:30 distribution, Q4 continuation/reversal check — with 'AMDX' vs 'XAMD' shorthand labelling which quarter did which job (accumulate-manipulate-distribute-then-continue, vs. continue-then-AMD). — $niper — "The Market Maker Sell Model & Quarterly Theory | Full Trade Breakdown $OIL", 4:37
  • Maps the 90-minute quarterly cycle specifically onto the Asian session: Q1 accumulation 18:00–19:30, Q2 manipulation/stop-hunt 19:30–21:00, Q3 distribution — then fractally subdivides Q3 again into 'micro cycles' to time the exact 5-minute entry. — $niper — "The MMXM Trader's Asian Session Model - AUDJPY Trade Breakdown Pt. 2", 3:37

Before trusting that a higher-timeframe candle will deliver its expected expansion, check that progressively lower-timeframe candles nested inside it (90m, then 30m) are also aligned with that direction, not still flip-flopping across their own open. A candle that trades to one side of its open and then back through to the other side has not yet aligned — wait for the next nested-timeframe window to re-sync before trusting the move.

A single 90-minute quarter rarely both manipulates and expands within itself — it usually does one or the other, not both, except around drivers. If the current quarter has already done its job (manipulation, or a strength-switch confirmation), do not wait for its own gap to fill; expect the next quarter instead to be the one that expands, ideally with little to no opposing wick.

Personal study notes, shared as-is and in good faith. Educational material only — nothing on this site constitutes financial advice.