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Nix Trades

10. Candle & Entry Logic

10 min read

Maintained by Nix Young

This chapter connects C1, C2 and C3 candle logic with CiC, CiSD, FVG, lower-timeframe execution, stop placement and trade management. It sets the wider narrative and higher-timeframe profile ahead of a lower-timeframe trigger, then records the trade-management rules that follow.

Questions this chapter answers
When can a C2 reversal be considered?
The chapter limits C2 reversal conditions to gap plus SMT or a two-stage PSP, with the broader narrative, key level and lower-timeframe support still required. Read this section
How does the C3 filter work?
It anticipates C3 on selected timeframes, avoids it when C2 already expanded, and distinguishes positional entries from entries that wait for C3 confirmation. Read this section
What does the chapter require before lower-timeframe execution?
It builds from a clear daily narrative and supporting 4h or 6h profile through clean 30m or 1h price action before using a 3m or 5m trigger. Read this section

10.1 C1 / C2 / C3

Section titled “10.1 C1 / C2 / C3”
Community insights
  • GxT continuation sequence: a new HTF (4H) candle opens within an LTF (1H/30m) C3, regardless of how the HTF candle itself closes. — Garrett — "4H PO3 Made Mechanical", 01:29
  • Not every swing point is a simple C2 closure — if candle 1 hits a key level but its wick is too large to support expansion, wait for candle 3 to open instead of forcing the trade on a candle that can't expand. — Garrett — "4H Profiling", 0:24
  • When a candle's close doesn't cleanly fit either the mark-the-wick or mark-the-whole-range invalidation pattern, mark instead from the close down to the candle's own 50% (its open) as the invalidation zone — a third mechanical case for an awkward, indecisive close. — Anomaly — Beginner Course — Lesson 5: Equilibrium Invalidation, 8:36
  • A single daily candle can satisfy both the bias condition and the structural (protected-swing) condition at once: when a daily candle-2 closure also happens to close back over the same series of down-close candles that created the low to its left, that one candle sets the daily bias and completes the lower-timeframe protected swing simultaneously — no separate 4-hour swing point needs to form first. — TTrades — "Best Trading Strategy for 2026 - TTFM", 13:16
  • Names an 'ideal formation': a candle-2 or candle-3 closure that simultaneously creates a protected swing (the same candle both confirms the closure and closes through the opposing series to lock in the swing) — with a 'less ideal' variant (candle 2 already expanded before the swing forms) and a 'delayed' variant (candle 3, not candle 2, is the one that creates the protected swing) both still counted as valid. — TTrades — "TTrades Ideal Formation - High Probability Swing Points", 0:17
  • An asymmetric point-of-interest requirement by timeframe: on the 4-hour chart, only a candle-2 closure is needed (no POI required); on the hourly chart, both a candle-2 closure and a genuine point of interest are required. — TTrades — "Stop Overcomplicating Trading (Here's the Fix)", 1:20

C2 Reversal Candle EQ

Section titled “C2 Reversal Candle EQ”
Community insight
  • Which fraction of a candle to use for equilibrium depends on its shape: for a shallow-wick expansion-type candle, use 0.5 of the entire candle's range (not just the wick) — using wick-only EQ there would demand a deeper retracement than a small-wick candle's premise supports. — TTrades — "TTrades Fractal Model - Trading Candle 3", 26:12

When using the second candle of a sequence for entry, choose the EQ based on the C2 close:

  • If C2 closes in the old trend direction:
    • use Wick EQ.
  • If C2 closes in the new direction:
    • use Full Candle EQ.

C2 Reversal Trading Conditions

Section titled “C2 Reversal Trading Conditions”

The only valid ways to trade a C2 reversal:

If C1 engages a key level but does not reverse, C2 can reverse and expand.

Two Ways to Trade a 4h C2

Section titled “Two Ways to Trade a 4h C2”

There are two ways to trade a 4h C2, and the trade does not necessarily need to wait for the candle to close:

  1. Small wick

    • If C2 forms with a small wick and supports the reversal / continuation narrative, it can be traded earlier.

  2. Large wick back to open

    • If C2 creates a large wick but trades back to the open, this can provide an actionable entry condition.

Both cases still require the broader narrative, key level, CiC, and LTF signature to support the trade.

10.2 C3 Filter

Section titled “10.2 C3 Filter”
Community insights
  • A candle 2 that has partially expanded isn't automatically disqualified from a candle-3 continuation — the deciding factor is whether it left any untouched liquidity draw behind. Partial expansion that still leaves short-term liquidity intact is tradeable; full expansion all the way to the drawn target isn't, since there's nowhere left for candle 3 to reach. — TTrades — "TTrades Fractal Model - Trading Candle 3", 8:56
  • A candle-2 setup's validity window can be tracked explicitly: still valid through candle 4 if unresolved; invalidated within candle 3 if it fails there; invalidated within candle 4 if it fails one candle later — naming which candle a setup failed in, not just whether it failed. — TTrades — "Intro To TTrades Fractal Model [Indicator & Settings]", 6:53
  • Names 'candle 3 closure' as an alternate reversal-confirmation path to 'candle 2 closure': when a point-of-interest candle doesn't sweep-and-close-back-inside the prior candle's extreme, wait one more candle — if that next candle closes back over/under candle 2's body (engulfing it, without sweeping the original wick), that's a valid alternate trigger, and candle 4 can then be anticipated as the expansion candle. These two closures are treated as the only formations the model looks for. — TTrades — "Candle 3 Closure: TTrades Fractal Model", 0:36
  • Anticipate C3 of 30m / 1h / 4h.
  • But if C2 has already expanded, do not trade C3.
  • Do not trade C4+ candle.
  • C3 closing back through C2’s open validates the coming C4 as the anticipated expansion candle — this is a forward-looking confirmation, not just a live/retroactive read of C4 once it’s already formed.

There are two ways to enter C3 itself, each with a different fill/confirmation trade-off:

  • Positional entry: mark EQ of C2’s range, find the only key level inside it (an FVG or CiSD), and rest a limit there on the assumption price will use it. Higher fill rate, less confirmation, and entered lower in the range.
  • Confirmation entry: wait for C3 to actually open, form its own wick, and confirm with its own CiSD before entering. Lower fill rate, more confirmation, and entered higher in the range.

10.3 CiC / CiSD / FVG

Section titled “10.3 CiC / CiSD / FVG”
Community insights
  • A "true CISD" is a closure through the single candle that itself formed the sequential SMT — a tighter, more specific entry trigger than a generic multi-candle CISD. — Afyz — trade recap, 5.5R YM short, 19:12
  • When marking a change in state of delivery against a single opposing candle, use its open. But when there's a series of consecutive opposing candles instead, don't use the extreme one's open — use the open of the candle in that series with the least extreme close (e.g. for a bearish CISD off a series of up-close candles, use the lowest-closing up candle's open, not the highest), then wait for a close through it. — AM — "Reversals" (Phases of Price Delivery pt. 2), 1:07
  • A change in state of delivery only counts as a high-probability order block if it forms at a key time for the asset — e.g. a 10am candle during the New York session matters for a USD pair, but the same 10am candle during the Asia session doesn't. The same-looking signature at a non-key time should be passed over in favour of waiting for one that forms during a genuinely relevant session window. — MMXM Trader — One Shot One Kill, 9:52
  • A change in state of delivery only needs a body-to-body close through the confirming opposing-colour candle collection — the close does not need to clear that collection's highest wick, only the highest (or lowest) body among them. — MMXM Trader — NASDAQ Series Ch. 2: Weekly Range, 8:21
  • An explicit timeframe-alignment table for the confirming CiSD: a 1h C2 pairs with a 5-minute CiSD, a 30-minute C2 with a 3-minute CiSD, and a 15-minute C2 with a 1-minute CiSD. — Anomaly — Beginner Course — Lesson 8: Entry, 1:13
  • With a sufficiently strong higher-timeframe narrative, a mere reaction off an order block's mean threshold (its 50% line) can be enough to enter and trust the level without waiting for the full CiSD close — explicitly caveated that this wouldn't be expected to hold if the directional bias turns out wrong. — TTrades — "Trading IRL & ERL With Order Blocks! - ICT Concepts", 8:48

LTF Execution

Section titled “LTF Execution”
Community insight
  • V-shape CiSD: enter on the first CiSD.
  • Non-V-shape: wait for gap / displacement.
  • Best CiSD = CiSD with a gap.
  • Prefer a bulky-bodied CiSD.
  • If the ideal CiSD is too far away, a failure-swing CiSD may be used if it fits the failure-swing model.
  • If you do not trust the first CiSD, wait for the second.
  • Only trade the first two CiSDs.
  • Optimal entry: first CiSD on continuation, second CiSD on reversal.
    • For continuation, the first CiSD is preferred because the market should already have direction and should continue efficiently.
    • For reversal, the second CiSD is often cleaner because reversal requires stronger confirmation after the initial character shift.
  • Prefer entries near new 90m / 4h / 6h openings.
    • New 90m / 4h / 6h opens often provide cleaner timing windows.
    • If entry is far from the HTF open, stronger displacement / gap / SS is required.
  • Ignore SMT that forms in close proximity to the level it’s testing — it’s expected almost every time there’s an SMT fill and carries no real signal. Only SMT at genuinely relevant, spaced-out highs/lows is meaningful.
  • Weigh which session a CiC originated in: an SMT/PSP that formed back in an earlier, less-relevant session and has kept eroding since is lower quality than one forming fresh in the session currently being traded — demand an extra CiSD (skip the first, wait for a later one) when the setup’s origin is stale.
  • An SMT-plus-FVG confluence only needs one of the two correlated assets to actually have the gap — the SMT just needs to occur at the swing that created it, not on both assets’ own gaps simultaneously.

Clean 30m / 1h Price Action Requirement

Section titled “Clean 30m / 1h Price Action Requirement”
Community insights

Execution should not jump straight from HTF narrative to 3m / 5m.

The cleaner path:

  1. Daily narrative is clear;
  2. 4h / 6h profile supports it;
  3. 30m / 1h price action is clean;
  4. 3m / 5m CiSD / FVG triggers entry.

If 30m / 1h price action is messy, reduce setup quality or wait.

Trail Stop

Section titled “Trail Stop”
  • Trail stop only under universal sequence.
  • When price expands from entry, protect the wick within the first CiSD EQ discount / premium as the trailed SL.

Scale In

Section titled “Scale In”
  • Scaling in at the second CiSD is optional.
  • Scaling is easier if the first entry was at the first CiSD.

Stop-Loss Placement by Candle Type

Section titled “Stop-Loss Placement by Candle Type”
Community insights
  • Don't size a stop against the top of a large reversal wick before its candle closes — price can't expand past the opening price, so the wick's final extent isn't known yet. Confirm the wick is actually forming a relevant, protected low/high first, then place the stop as close to it as possible. — Garrett — Q&A stream, 12:09
  • How tight a stop can be depends on the shape of the confirming opposing candle: mostly body means the stop can sit at the body's low, but a candle that's roughly half wick needs the stop at the actual swing low or EQ of the wick, since a body-low stop there would get clipped by an ordinary retest. — Garrett — Entries lecture, 22:37
  • A useful generalisation for stop placement: every stop-loss is really just the wick of some higher-timeframe candle. Framing it that way makes it easier to judge whether a given stop is actually sitting at a meaningful structural level, rather than an arbitrary distance. — Lathyrus Masterclass — Supplementary Lessons — Afyz Mini-Lesson: Gap Selection Lecture (Continuation Part 2), 0:39
  • Equal lows or highs appearing right before an otherwise mechanically valid entry should be treated as a stop-placement red flag — widen the stop to the true structural invalidation rather than trusting the equal-low/high itself as protected. — Lathyrus Masterclass — Supplementary Lessons — Afyz Mini-Lesson: Gap Selection Lecture (Continuation Part 2), 1:25
  • When the "obvious" stop location (the swing high/low that triggered the setup) is too far away to justify the risk, place the stop just above/below the nearer fair value gap boundary instead — a tighter, still-defensible reference that doesn't require giving up on the trade entirely. — TTrades — "ICT Index Futures Weekly Recap - Week of 5/16/22", 3:53
  • When the candles that produced a swing are visually messy (several small choppy candles rather than one clean leg), collapse the whole leg into a single reference and demand a close beyond the start/end of the entire leg — discarding the interior noise rather than picking which single candle's open to use. — TTrades — "Stop Losses in Trading Know When You're Wrong", 11:04
  • When entering off the order-block/CiSD candle, the stop only needs to sit at the low of that specific triggering candle — not at the extreme of the whole manipulation leg that produced the SMT — since riding the stop back to the SMT's origin low unnecessarily kills the risk:reward. — $niper — "The Trade Model That Got Me Profitable - The Forever Model Workshop", 19:00
  • Chooses the stop-loss level specifically by which breach would invalidate the SMT divergence itself — preferring the SMT-creating swing extreme over a closer/tighter manipulation-candle wick, because breaching the former structurally invalidates the whole thesis, not merely because it's wider. — $niper — "The Only Risk Management Strategy You Need!", 6:47
  • On 1-minute entries, deliberately uses a wider stop (at the low/high the entry candle actually ran, not the tightest possible level) to tolerate a deeper re-tap of the 15-minute gap, explicitly trading precision for noise-tolerance and being willing to re-enter if stopped. — $niper — "The Scalping Strategy with Highest Win rate", 7:29
  • If the candle you are entering on is an expansion candle, mark its EQ and keep the stop on that candle’s discount side (the half you expect to hold), since opposing candles should support price from there — this is a positional-entry-style invalidation level, not just a wick stop.
  • If the candle is a reversal candle with a large wick, do not place the entry, or size the stop, against the top of the wick before the candle closes — price cannot expand past the opening price, so the wick’s final extent is still unknown. Confirm the wick is actually forming a relevant, protected low/high first; only once that is established should the stop sit as close to the wick as possible.
  • The confirming opposing candle’s own shape decides how tight the stop can be: if that candle is mostly body, the stop can sit at the body’s low, since a retest deep enough to reach the full wick low is unlikely. If the candle is roughly half wick, the stop needs to sit at the actual swing low (or EQ of that wick) instead — a body-low stop would get clipped by an ordinary retest. A quick test for judging “too wicky to trust the body”: draw premium/discount from the wick to the opposing candle’s own opening price — if that candle’s close lands in premium of that range, don’t trust the body as a stop reference.
  • Never place a stop directly on an unformed/future gap, even in cases where price ultimately expands through it anyway — the gap isn’t confirmed until both bounding candles have closed.
  • Continuation stops carry slightly more risk at the body than reversal stops, since a continuation entry comes after price has already expanded once (you’re deeper into the move); default to the swing high/low rather than the body for continuation stops specifically.

10.4 Trade Management

Section titled “10.4 Trade Management”
Community insights
  • Take partial profit at relevant levels that are at least 2R away on the path to the overall draw, not at an arbitrary fixed-R distance with nothing structural there — only fall back to a fixed-R partial when the range genuinely has no relevant level to partial at. — Garrett — Entries lecture, 35:17
  • Rather than taking one full-size entry, take a partial entry first, then add more each time price confirms a new continuation signature — each add trails the stop to that signature's invalidation point, which pulls the average entry price down toward the new stop. This builds a larger position without increasing the dollar risk if stopped out, since the average keeps moving to sit near the trailed stop rather than the original entry. — AM — Weekly trade review, 15:06
  • When the day's range has already run well beyond the average daily range by the time a major timing window (like 9:30) arrives, that window becomes the deciding line for whether the range extends further or gets capped. Manage a trade into that window by scaling out into the push (selling into strength) rather than trailing the stop — it captures more value than risking a full trailed exit at a swing low if the range instead reverses. — AM — Friday continuation trade recap, 10:56
  • Stay fully hands-off on a new position until it either stops out at the pre-set invalidation or reaches a defined R:R threshold (1R-1.5R) — resist reacting to the market ranging around the entry in between, since that's the window where premature exits before a trade plays out actually happen. — AM — 4-Step Trade Framework, 15:03
  • Before entering a further continuation, compare the range already covered so far in the day to the typical range on similar continuation days (the ADR). If prior continuation days have run ~300 points and today has only covered ~150, there's still statistical room to justify pushing for another leg rather than assuming the move is exhausted. — AM — Live backtest session, 43:54
  • An order block should only be trusted if it's actually trading into a gap (or taking a genuine higher high/low) — a random order block with no gap behind it and only an opposing-run-then-close-through is not usable on its own, and ideally the order block also sits in premium of the range being traded. — Anomaly — Livestreams — Q&A, July 7, 2026, 1:03:08
  • When the distance to a "clean" CiSD makes the stop too large relative to the reward on offer, it can be worth deliberately entering at a nearer wick/gap area instead of waiting for that cleaner signature — a concrete case of prioritising acceptable R:R over the theoretically tidier entry. — Lathyrus Masterclass — Supplementary Lessons — Afyz Mini-Lesson: Continuations, 56:44
  • A strength switch isn't only an entry filter — it can also serve as an in-trade risk-management warning. If the leading/middle assets reach a key high without reversing but then start consolidating instead of the laggard breaking through, that consolidation is itself a signal the continuation may be failing, worth trailing/taking profit early on rather than holding for the full target. — Lathyrus Masterclass — Supplementary Lessons — Afyz Mini-Lesson: Phase of Price & Asset Synchronization, 1:17:29
  • When trailing a runner, weigh how much time is left in the current candle against whether correlated assets can realistically travel the remaining distance to their own targets in that time — if not, take profit near the candle's close rather than holding through it on the assumption the move will simply continue. — Lathyrus Masterclass — Supplementary Lessons — Afyz Mini-Lesson: Gap Selection Lecture (Continuation Part 2), 1:02
  • Trade management around break-even is a genuine tradeoff, not a solvable puzzle: you either sit through a permissible-but-uncomfortable retracement, or take an earlier partial/take-profit before the draw is fully met — you can't avoid both risks at once, only choose which one you're willing to accept. — Lathyrus Masterclass — Supplementary Lessons — Afyz Mini-Lesson: Gap Selection Lecture (Continuation Part 2), 1:31
  • Entering in the lower half of a still-forming 90-minute candle's wick (on the logic that a manipulate-then-expand candle must eventually close back near its own open) gives an unusually tight stop relative to the coming expansion — which in turn justifies moving to break-even almost immediately, around +1R, once the continuation signature confirms. — Lathyrus Masterclass — Supplementary Lessons — Afyz Mini-Lesson: Asset Synchronization & Phases of Price, 0:29
  • Take profit as soon as price reaches the start of the target zone (e.g. the near edge of a higher-timeframe fair value gap) rather than holding out for the deepest possible fill of that level — a deliberate anti-greed discipline, not just a mechanical partial-profit rule. — TTrades — "ICT Index Futures Weekly Recap - Week of 5/16/22", 2:37
  • When two imbalances sit near each other in the same direction, enter on the first one but treat the second, further one as a realistic extended target — don't assume price stops at the first gap just because that's where the entry was taken. — TTrades — "Index Futures Weekly Recap- ICT Concepts", 3:22
  • An absolute version of stop management: every trade resolves as either a full stop-out or a full 2R target — no break-even move and no trailing, under any circumstance, so there's no discretion left to second-guess in the moment. — Ash Trades — "The Journey To Profitability & The Unicorn Model", 1:19:14
  • A standard-deviation projection grid used as the core targeting framework: measure a candle's manipulation leg (high to low) and project fixed multiples off it — 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3.5, and 4x — as the zones where retracement, continuation, or reversal are expected next. — DexterLab — "Putting All The ICT Pieces Together - Master PO3", 11:19
  • A structural (not just anti-greed) reason to bank profit near the daily-open area even with a deeper target reachable: if the bearish thesis turns out wrong, that same zone is exactly where a new higher-low would need to form to preserve the uptrend's structure — making it the natural fallback level regardless of which way the trade resolves. — TTrades — "Wick Size Matters: The Key to Understanding Reversal and Expansion Candles", 12:17
  • Alternate view from an experienced trader, in tension with this site's structural partial-taking rule: argues that scaling out of intraday trades is emotionally driven ('stealing from your future self') rather than a logical extension of a model — if you have conviction in a level, hold for it — though he grants an exception for swing trades. Presented here as a counterpoint worth knowing, not adopted in place of the site's own 2R+ partial-taking guidance. — Trader Kane — "The Mind Behind a Multi-Million Dollar Day Trader", 11:30
  • An expansion candle only has a finite amount of range and time before the session rolls to a new higher-timeframe candle — once a target is hit or the window is nearly over, don't keep pushing the same position; wait for the next HTF candle's open and look for a fresh continuation entry instead. — TTrades — "Trading The 4 Hour Power Of Three - OHLC / OLHC", 9:58
  • A time-based exit alternative to a fixed R-multiple: since expansion candles tend to close near their own high or low, hold a runner toward the anticipated close time of the higher-timeframe candle (e.g. holding a 10:00 hourly-candle trade toward its 11:00 close) rather than a purely price-based target. — TTrades — "TTrades Fractal Model + Inversion (Intraday Strategy)", 5:24
  • Specific Fibonacci projection levels used for targeting off a manipulation leg: 1, 0, −1, −2, −2.5, −4, −4.5. When the manipulation leg is large (roughly approaching half the size of the range being projected), default the target to −1 instead of −2/−2.5, escalating only once −1 clears without reversal; when a −2/−2.5 projection sits just short of existing liquidity, take profit at the liquidity point rather than holding for the full projection. — TTrades — "Targets Using Projections - The Fractal Model", 0:27
  • As price keeps grinding in the same direction, each new short-term-low sweep plus CiSD that reproduces the same entry checklist is treated as its own fresh, independently valid entry — stacking multiple entries into a single directional move rather than treating it as merely adding to an open position. — $niper — "The Trade Model That Got Me Profitable - The Forever Model Workshop", 20:03
  • When a limit order is missed by a few points because price displaces away before filling, wait for the next fresh order block/CiSD to form slightly further along and requote the same directional idea at the new level with a new stop, rather than chasing or abandoning it. — $niper — "This is How i Lost $2,354 Trading Dow Jones (trade recap)", 9:54
  • Once price has travelled more than halfway to a 1:2 target, tightens the stop to a much closer recent low — reducing risk to roughly half — as a discrete middle step between leaving the stop where it is and moving to full breakeven. — $niper — "This is How i Lost $2,354 Trading Dow Jones (trade recap)", 11:26
  • Uses the zone between the 2.0 and 2.5 standard-deviation extensions of the measured swing as the actual take-profit range (not a single level), confluenced with a separately-identified relative-equal-highs level. — $niper — "Top Down Analysis Made Easy | Full Trade Breakdown & Review", 12:27
  • Sets take-profits at 2 and 2.5 standard deviations projected from the first candle of a 90-minute opening-range window — a different anchor basis than projecting off a manipulation/expansion leg. — $niper — "Trading From Vacation: $NQ & $GC Longs Trade Breakdowns", 7:20
  • A quantified stress-test comparing two trader profiles: a 50%-win-rate/1:2-R:R trader nets roughly 6R in a normal month vs. a 70%-win-rate/1:1-R:R trader netting roughly double that — but under a matched 10-point win-rate drawdown, the 1:2 trader (now sub-50%) still nets slightly positive for the month, while the 1:1 trader (now ~40%) swings to a meaningfully negative month. A same-day worked example shows an identical win/loss sequence leaving the 1:2 trader net positive while the 1:1 trader merely claws back to breakeven. — $niper — "The Secret Math Behind Staying Profitable with a Low Win rate", 0:49
  • Alternate view, in tension with this site's 'pyramid on reversal trades only, never on continuation' rule: pyramids into a long at an intermediate-term-low pullback that is itself a retracement within an already-established directional move, before the primary target is reached — offered explicitly as an extra entry point on a continuation-style setup. Flagged as a point worth reconciling rather than adopted here. — $niper — "$SOL Buys Trade Breakdown | The Market Maker Buy Model | ICT Concepts", 4:53
  • A recurring standard-deviation projection method: measure the manipulation leg (swing high to swing low), then project 2 and 2.5 standard deviations as the take-profit zone (aligned with a liquidity pool) and 4 standard deviations as the maximum-possible-expansion target. — $niper — "The MMXM Trader's Asian Session Model - AUDJPY Trade Breakdown Pt. 2", 5:34
  • After a break-even move made ahead of a scheduled release backfired (incoming bullish news whipsawed price back through the level right at the BE stop), adopted a rule not to move the stop to break-even ahead of a known scheduled volatility event even if price currently supports it — wait until after the event resolves. — $niper — "NQ Longs Trade Breakdown | My Thought Process", 4:52
  • When one asset in a correlated pair reaches the external-range target before the other while a position is still open, offers two concrete choices: close the whole remaining position once the correlated asset also taps its target, or take a further partial (roughly 10% of the remaining runner) at that moment, rather than holding blind. — $niper — "Execution & Trade Management | The Forever Model | $GBPJPY Trade Breakdown", 6:24
  • Enter the first CiSD when possible: it rarely gets missed, and it lets you move the stop sooner and more aggressively than waiting for a second CiSD.
  • Trail the stop to the most recent invalidation level as price confirms it (e.g. once price trades out of the first CiSD’s range), then go to break-even — this is not the same as trailing into profit, which should be done sparingly.
  • If no CiSD/order block forms above entry to trail to and price simply expands, use a mechanical 2R break-even rule instead.
  • Re-anchor premium/discount to the high (or low) of each new leg as the trade develops, and use it to time break-even: once a new leg has formed, ask whether you’d want price to retrace all the way back through that leg to your entry before continuing — if not, that’s the point to move to break-even, rather than waiting for a fixed R-multiple.
  • Alignment with shallow-wick HTF candles predicts a shallow retracement after entry; alignment with a large-wick HTF candle allows for a deeper one, since the large wick forces the next-lower-timeframe candle to open further away, leaving more room for pullback.
  • Pyramid (add to a position) on reversal trades only, never on continuation — a continuation add sacrifices too much of an already-favourable position size relative to the smaller remaining move, while a reversal add costs little since you’re already entering early.
  • Realistic expectations: minimum target is 2R, with a realistic average of 3–4R across a full campaign when holding to the actual higher-timeframe draw. Expect a 40–50% win rate when holding for full/partial targets — this is by design, not a problem, since the trail-to-invalidation and break-even mechanics above mean most losses are partial or scratch trades, not full losses.
  • Before trusting a retracement order block enough to trail a stop to it (or enter off it), check where it sits using premium/discount of the leg from reversal to the first retracement: an order block at or below EQ/discount is well-priced and unlikely to be revisited; one still high in premium should only be trusted once price has already run at least 1R from it, since it may just be a lower-timeframe gap’s low rather than a genuinely protected level.
  • Take partial profit at relevant levels that are at or beyond 2R on the way to the overall draw liquidity — not at an arbitrary fixed-R distance with nothing structural behind it. Only fall back to a fixed-R partial (e.g. 2R) when there is no relevant level inside that range to partial at. Take roughly half off at a time, holding a runner to the final target.

10.5 Inverse PD Arrays (IFVG / ICiSD)

Section titled “10.5 Inverse PD Arrays (IFVG / ICiSD)”
Community insights
  • An inverse FVG (IFVG): once a bullish FVG is closed below (or a bearish FVG closed above), it flips polarity — treat it as resistance (or support) in the new direction rather than as the original gap’s support/resistance.
  • An inverse CiSD (ICiSD): once an original CiSD level is respected and price starts to expand from it, if an opposing candle later closes back through that same level, the level is now “protected” going forward — look for price to trade away from this ICiSD as confirmation that the continuation is still intact.
  • Either can stand in as an earlier confirmation than waiting for a full higher-timeframe CiSD to close: a fresh IFVG or ICiSD forming in the expected direction is usable evidence that the reversal/continuation is genuine before the slower higher-timeframe signature completes.

10.6 Inter-Candle Confirmation Patterns

Section titled “10.6 Inter-Candle Confirmation Patterns”
Community insight
  • Whether an intracandle CISD confirming a wick completes early or late inside the continuation candle changes what to do: early completion means the candle still has time/range left to expand into targets and can be traded now; late completion means the wick is validated but the trade should wait for the next candle, which provides fresh range and time. — TTrades — "Intracandle CISD (IC-CISD) - Improve Your Entries", 8:40
  • Inter-candle reversal: when there’s no usable key level anywhere in the previous candle’s range (or one existed but only got consolidated through, not reversed from), the current candle has to create its own — it opens, prints a swing in the upper or lower half of the prior range, and that swing becomes the key level for the rest of the candle.
  • Inter-candle continuation: validating that a candle which has already started expanding will keep going, as opposed to validating the start of a brand-new candle. The key level here is whatever the candle’s own initial displacement away from its open created (a gap or swing); if that level holds on a retest, treat the candle as ready to continue expanding.
  • Inter-candle CiSD: a large wick on one side of a candle that’s already expanding or reversing represents a retracement that has already happened inside that same candle — continuation can proceed without waiting for a fresh open-low or open-high, since the candle’s low (or high) is already protected by the opposing move that created the wick.
  • A “propulsion block” is the specific CiSD that forms once price retraces back into a candle’s range to the open of candle 3 (read on the 30m or hourly), immediately before renewed expansion — this is the entry-trigger candle for that retracement.
  • Marking a neutral candle (large wicks on both sides, no clear directional resolution): mark the refined key level from the candle’s opening price to its wick extreme, rather than using the candle’s full high-to-low range.

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