Why gold suits ICT and SMC
Gold moves in sharp sessions, reacts strongly to US news, and repeatedly runs obvious highs and lows before reversing. ICT and SMC give you a vocabulary for that behaviour: where liquidity rests, when it gets taken, and whether price then shows real intent.
1. Market structure: HH, HL, LH, LL
Structure is read from confirmed swing highs and lows. Higher highs and higher lows describe a bullish leg; lower highs and lower lows a bearish one. A break of structure (BOS) continues the trend; a change of character (CHoCH) is the first break against it.
In the Jenvu terminal a swing is only labelled once enough candles have closed on both sides, and a past label never moves afterwards — so what you see on the chart is not repainted later.
2. Liquidity: BSL, SSL and sweeps
- Buy-side liquidity (BSL) sits above untaken swing highs and equal highs.
- Sell-side liquidity (SSL) sits below untaken swing lows and equal lows.
- A sweep is a wick through that level followed by a close back inside. A close that stays beyond the level is a run, not a sweep.
On 1H and 4H the terminal's fresh swing sweep tool checks whether a new high or low took the previous 10 candles' extreme, then reports whether price actually moved away within the following candles, moved late, or failed.
3. Fair value gaps (FVG)
An FVG is a three-candle imbalance where the first and third candles' wicks do not overlap. It shows displacement — price moving with intent — and often acts as a return zone. A bullish FVG supports longs; a bearish FVG supports shorts.
4. Supply and demand zones with FVG confluence
Jenvu only draws a fresh supply or demand zone when a fresh swing is followed by a strong displacement candle that creates an FVG within a few candles. Slow drifts away from a swing produce no zone. The latest zone stays on the chart until it is genuinely invalidated — a close through it, a stop-level wick, or a newer replacement.
5. Timing: killzones and news
- London and New York sessions carry most of gold's meaningful sweeps.
- The Asian session is often a range that later gets swept.
- High-impact US releases can invalidate any setup; check the calendar first.
See the killzone times page for the current session windows.
6. A simple top-down workflow
- Context: read bias on 4H or 1H structure.
- Setup: wait for a sweep or a fresh zone with FVG on 15M in that direction.
- Risk: place the stop beyond the swept extreme and size the position from that distance.
- Skip the trade when evidence is mixed — waiting is a valid decision.
Risk note
No method wins every trade, and no win rate is guaranteed. These concepts describe probabilities, not certainties. Trade sizes you can afford to lose and read the disclaimer.
Learn how the analysis pipeline works on the AI engine page, or see plans to use the terminal.
Last updated · October 2026