- Price often moves toward obvious highs and lows: previous day high/low, the Asia range and clear swing points. These are reference levels, not proof that orders sit there.
- What matters is the reaction: a sweep that closes back inside, or a breakout that closes beyond and holds.
- The 4H structure is a filter. It tells you which side to prefer, not when to enter.
- Every setup is a checklist. If one mandatory item is missing, the answer is "no trade".
- There are no win rates here. The framework is a hypothesis you should test in replay and on a paper account.
The five questions behind every setup
- 1What is the 4H direction or market condition: bullish, bearish, ranging or unclear?
- 2Which liquidity reference levels are close to price right now?
- 3Did price sweep a level and reclaim it, or break it and accept beyond it?
- 4Is there clear displacement and a lower-timeframe confirmation on closed candles?
- 5Is there enough room to the next level to justify the risk after costs?
The core idea
Many traders place stops just beyond obvious highs and lows, and breakout traders place entry orders there too. When price reaches such a level it often moves quickly, then either keeps going or snaps back. The playbook does not try to guess which. It waits for price to show its hand with a candle close.
From candles alone you cannot see where orders actually rest, so the playbook never claims to. It treats each level as a place worth watching and measures what price does there.
Three timeframe layers
Weekly and daily charts give broad context and major levels. The 4H chart is the directional filter. A 15-minute or 5-minute chart is where you watch levels get swept or broken, and a 5-minute or 1-minute chart is where you confirm the entry. Each layer answers a different question, and no single candle on any of them is a signal on its own.
Sessions: reference ranges and execution windows
The Asia session usually builds a range whose high and low become reference levels. London and the New York morning are the default execution windows, when the playbook looks for setups. The New York afternoon range can be used as an extra reference level but is not an execution window unless you turn it on.
Session times are wall-clock times in London, New York and Tokyo. They move against UTC and against your local time when daylight saving changes, so the session clock below calculates them for the date you choose.
Sweep, accepted breakout or trap
A sweep trades beyond a level and closes back inside within a few candles. An accepted breakout closes beyond the level with a strong body and holds there. A trap (failed breakout) closes beyond, then quickly closes back inside, and confirms in the other direction. A wick beyond a level on its own is none of these yet: it is only a possible sweep.
Risk comes before entry
The stop goes where the idea is proven wrong, usually beyond the sweep extreme plus a small volatility buffer. The first target is the next opposing liquidity level. If the distance to that target is less than your minimum reward-to-risk after costs (2:1 by default), you skip the trade, however good the chart looks.
How a setup develops, step by step
The setup checklist
Every item is mandatory. On a live chart each one would be marked pass, waiting or fail with a short reason, and a setup is never "confirmed" while any item is waiting or has failed. Here they are shown empty, as a template you can run through yourself.
- Pass: the condition is met on closed candles
- Waiting: not met yet, or the candle is still forming
- Fail: the condition was broken, so the setup is off
Bullish checklist
- Inside an enabled execution session (London or New York AM)
- 4H bias bullish, or countertrend mode deliberately switched on
- Reference low identified (Asia low, previous day low or a clear swing low)
- The low was swept: price traded below it
- A candle closed back above the level within the reclaim window
- Bullish displacement or a bullish lower-timeframe structure break
- Entry trigger confirmed on a closed candle
- Stop below the sweep low, target at the next opposing level
- Minimum reward-to-risk met after spread, fees and slippage
- Data is current and the candles are closed
Bearish checklist
- Inside an enabled execution session (London or New York AM)
- 4H bias bearish, or countertrend mode deliberately switched on
- Reference high identified (Asia high, previous day high or a clear swing high)
- The high was swept: price traded above it
- A candle closed back below the level within the reclaim window
- Bearish displacement or a bearish lower-timeframe structure break
- Entry trigger confirmed on a closed candle
- Stop above the sweep high, target at the next opposing level
- Minimum reward-to-risk met after spread, fees and slippage
- Data is current and the candles are closed
Session clock: your local times, with daylight saving
Calculated in your browserPick your time zone and any date. The windows are calculated in your browser from the London, New York and Tokyo wall-clock times, so they stay correct across daylight-saving changes.
| Session | Defined as (local time) | In your time zone | UTC |
|---|---|---|---|
Asia Reference range | 09:00–15:00 Asia/Tokyo | 00:00 UTC – 06:00 UTC | 00:00–06:00 |
LondonOpen now Execution window | 08:00–16:30 Europe/London | 08:00 UTC – 16:30 UTC | 08:00–16:30 |
New York AM Execution window | 08:00–12:00 America/New_York | 12:00 UTC – 16:00 UTC | 12:00–16:00 |
New York PM Reference range | 12:00–17:00 America/New_York | 16:00 UTC – 21:00 UTC | 16:00–21:00 |
These are default windows used in the lessons, not official exchange hours. Desks and instruments define them slightly differently, so check them for what you trade. London and New York change their clocks on different dates, so for a few weeks each spring and autumn the gap between them is an hour shorter. Pick a date in March or late October to see it.
The 15 lessons
Work through them in order. Each lesson has a plain-English explanation, bullish and bearish examples, what confirms and invalidates the idea, common mistakes, a short quiz and a replay exercise on the free gold chart.
- Lesson 1
Market Structure: Trend, Range, and 4H Bias
How to read market structure on the 4H chart: higher highs and lows, lower highs and lows, ranges, and why the 4H bias is a filter, not an entry signal.
Start lesson - Lesson 2
Understanding Liquidity Reference Levels
Which liquidity reference levels to mark (previous day high/low, Asia high/low, swing highs/lows, equal highs/lows) and how to count tests objectively.
Start lesson - Lesson 3
Asia Range: Building the Session High and Low
How to build the Asia session high and low, convert session times correctly across daylight saving, and use the Asia range as a reference for London.
Start lesson - Lesson 4
London Session: Sweep, Reversal, or Continuation
What the London session can do with the Asia range: sweep and reverse, break out and continue, or stay inside, and how to classify it from price.
Start lesson - Lesson 5
New York AM: Confirmation, Continuation, or Reversal
How the New York morning session can continue, reverse or range after London, and how to use London highs and lows as reference levels for New York setups.
Start lesson - Lesson 6
Liquidity Sweep vs. Accepted Breakout
The exact difference between a liquidity sweep and reclaim and an accepted breakout: wicks, closes, displacement, retests and the rules that confirm each.
Start lesson - Lesson 7
Bull Traps and Bear Traps
How to recognise a bull trap or bear trap (a failed breakout) from candle closes, what confirms it, where the stop goes, and why "trap" is an interpretation.
Start lesson - Lesson 8
Displacement and Candle-Close Confirmation
What a displacement candle is, how to measure it against ATR, why the playbook only uses closed candles, and how that avoids repainting and look-ahead bias.
Start lesson - Lesson 9
Multi-Timeframe Analysis: Weekly, Daily, 4H, 5M, and 1M
A simple top-down multi-timeframe process: weekly and daily for context, 4H for bias, 15m or 5m for setups and 5m or 1m for entries, each with one job.
Start lesson - Lesson 10
Entry, Stop-Loss, Target, and Reward-to-Risk
How to place a stop at the point of invalidation, pick a target at the next liquidity level, include costs, and skip any setup without enough reward-to-risk.
Start lesson - Lesson 11
When Not to Trade
The conditions that should stop a trade before it starts: mid-range price, unclear bias, wick-only breaks, poor reward-to-risk, closed sessions, bad data and news.
Start lesson - Lesson 12
Cross-Market Context for Gold: DXY, Yields, VIX, and Gold Futures
How the US dollar index, 10-year Treasury yields, VIX and gold futures can add context to gold analysis, why the relationships change, and why price action decides.
Start lesson - Lesson 13
Golden Pocket as Confluence, Not a Signal
How to draw the Fibonacci golden pocket (0.5–0.618 retracement) from a clearly defined swing, and why it is a confluence zone, never a standalone trade signal.
Start lesson - Lesson 14
Trading Journal, Replay, and Backtesting
How to test the playbook honestly: a trading journal, chart replay, exact rules, realistic costs, in-sample and out-of-sample data, and the statistics to report.
Start lesson - Lesson 15
Risk Management and the Limits of Probability
Why no setup has a known probability, how losing streaks and drawdowns grow with risk per trade, and the risk rules that keep a trader in the game.
Start lesson
Frequently asked questions
Is the Session Liquidity Playbook a trading signal service?
No. It is free educational material that explains a way to read charts. It does not tell you to buy or sell anything and it does not send signals.
What win rate does this strategy have?
We do not publish one. A win rate only means something with a documented dataset, exact rules, realistic costs and out-of-sample testing. Until you have tested the rules that way yourself, treat any claimed percentage as unproven.
Does it only work on gold?
The examples use gold because session behaviour is easy to see on it, but the ideas apply to any liquid market with clear sessions. Session times, tick sizes and costs differ by instrument, so set them for what you trade.
What times are the Asia, London and New York sessions?
The lessons use Asia 09:00–15:00 Tokyo, London 08:00–16:30 London and New York AM 08:00–12:00 New York as defaults. Converted to UTC or your local time they shift with daylight saving; the session clock on this page shows them for any date.
Can I practise this without risking money?
Yes. The Tradeskill has a free paper trading account with $20,000 in virtual money and chart replay, so you can rewind to past sessions and apply the checklist candle by candle.