ICT Silver Bullet Strategy Guide

Silver Bullet Strategy: Complete Checklist & Examples

A step-by-step, executable checklist for the ICT Silver Bullet model — the precise time window, sweep, displacement and FVG entry that define a valid setup.

What Is the ICT Silver Bullet Strategy?

The Silver Bullet is a time-based trade setup popularised by ICT (Inner Circle Trader). It is not a vague pattern you hunt all day — it is a precise, one-hour playbook executed inside a fixed window of the trading day.

The logic is mechanical. During specific hours, the algorithm that delivers price tends to sweep a recent pool of liquidity, then reverse toward the opposite draw. The Silver Bullet is the rule set that gets you into that reversal at the cleanest possible price.

Every valid setup is built from the same four ingredients in the same order:

A defined time window (the Silver Bullet hour).
A recent Liquidity Sweep — a stop hunt above a high or below a low.
A violent Displacement that creates a Market Structure Shift (MSS).
A Fair Value Gap (FVG) left behind by that displacement, used as the entry.

Miss any one of these and the setup is invalid. The strength of the model is that it filters out 95% of the day and forces you to wait for a high-probability sequence.

The Complete Silver Bullet Trading Checklist

Run every potential trade through this five-step checklist. If a step fails, you stand down — there is no partial credit.

Step 1: Identify the Correct Time Window

The Silver Bullet only fires inside its hour. The three classic windows (New York local time) are 3:00–4:00 AM (London), 10:00–11:00 AM (New York AM), and 2:00–3:00 PM (New York PM). Each sits inside a recognised Kill Zone — the London Open Kill Zone and the New York Kill Zone.

Mark these windows on your chart before the session. Outside them, the setup does not exist, no matter how clean the price action looks.

Step 2: Locate a Recent Draw on Liquidity

Identify the obvious pool the market is likely to attack: a recent session high, a recent session low, an old daily high/low, or an equal-highs/equal-lows cluster. This is your draw on liquidity.

The setup begins when price runs into that pool and performs a Liquidity Sweep (a Stop Hunt) — taking the stops resting beyond the level, then rejecting. That sweep is your trigger to start watching for entry.

Step 3: Wait for Displacement & a Market Structure Shift (MSS)

After the sweep, you need proof the algorithm has flipped intent. That proof is Displacement: a fast, large-bodied move in the opposite direction that breaks the most recent short-term swing point.

When that break occurs, it confirms a Market Structure Shift (MSS). A bullish MSS appears after a sweep of sell-side liquidity; a bearish MSS appears after a sweep of buy-side liquidity. No displacement, no MSS, no trade.

Step 4: Pinpoint the Fair Value Gap (FVG) for Entry

Displacement is fast, so it leaves an imbalance — a Fair Value Gap. On a three-candle sequence, the FVG is the unfilled space between the wick of candle one and the wick of candle three.

This FVG is your entry zone. You are waiting for price to retrace back into the gap, where the algorithm typically rebalances price before continuing toward the opposite liquidity draw. Ideally that FVG sits in a favourable Premium/Discount position relative to the swing.

Step 5: Define Entry, Stop Loss, and Profit Targets

With the FVG marked, the trade plan is mechanical:

Entry: a limit order at the FVG, or a confirmation entry once price taps the gap and reacts. An Order Block sitting just behind the FVG strengthens the zone.
Stop loss: beyond the swing high/low that the sweep created — not at the FVG edge.
Targets: the opposite liquidity pool. Many traders bank partials at the first internal liquidity level and trail the rest toward the external draw.

If the structure gives you less than a 1:2 risk-to-reward to the nearest clean draw, the trade does not qualify.

Chart Examples: The Silver Bullet in Action

Two annotated walkthroughs make the sequence concrete.

Bullish Example on EUR/USD (NY AM Session)

At 10:00 AM New York time, EUR/USD trades into the Asian session low, sweeping sell-side liquidity with a sharp wick. Within minutes a strong bullish candle displaces upward and breaks the prior micro-high — a clean bullish MSS.

That displacement leaves a Fair Value Gap a few pips below current price. A limit order in the FVG fills on the retracement, stop below the swept low, target at the prior NY session high where buy-side liquidity rests. Price rebalances the gap and runs to target inside the hour.

Bearish Example on Gold/XAUUSD (NY PM Session)

At 2:00 PM, XAU/USD pushes up to take out the morning's high, sweeping buy-side liquidity. A heavy bearish displacement candle then breaks the last short-term low, printing a bearish MSS.

The down-move leaves an FVG above price. A short entry in that gap, stop above the swept high, targets the unfilled low from earlier in the session. Gold's larger ranges make the risk-to-reward generous when the sweep is clean.

Adapting the Silver Bullet for Different Markets

The skeleton never changes — time window, sweep, displacement, FVG — but the tuning does.

Considerations for Forex vs. Indices

Forex pairs like EUR/USD respect the London and New York Kill Zones cleanly because that is when institutional flow concentrates. Index futures such as the ES (E-mini S&P 500) align tightly to the New York cash open, so the 10:00 AM window is often the strongest. Use index-specific session highs and lows as your draws rather than FX session levels.

Applying the Model to Crypto and Commodities

Crypto trades 24/7, so the New York windows still matter because that is when US desks are active — BTC/USD frequently respects the 10:00 AM sweep-and-displace rhythm. Commodities like Gold (XAU/USD) carry wider ranges, so widen your stops and let targets breathe. In all cases, keep the time filter: the Silver Bullet is defined by the hour, not by the asset.

Silver Bullet vs. The 2022/2024 ICT Models: Key Differences

The Silver Bullet is a tight, intraday, time-boxed setup. The broader ICT 2022 and 2024 models are full daily frameworks, not single-hour tactics.

The 2022 model chains a daily liquidity sweep, displacement, FVG, and a return to the FVG across a whole session — the Silver Bullet is essentially that sequence compressed into one Kill Zone hour.
The 2024 model leans harder on the Change in State of Delivery and refined order-block entries, often without the strict one-hour clock.
The Silver Bullet's edge is its time constraint: by trading only inside a Kill Zone window, you avoid the low-liquidity chop the full models still have to navigate.

Think of the Silver Bullet as the sniper version of the 2022 model — same mechanics, narrower trigger.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the official ICT Silver Bullet time windows?

There are three, all in New York local time: 3:00–4:00 AM (London), 10:00–11:00 AM (New York AM), and 2:00–3:00 PM (New York PM). The New York AM window is the most widely traded and usually the most reliable.

What is the expected win rate of the Silver Bullet strategy?

There is no official published win rate, and results vary by trader, market, and discipline. The model's value is its strict filtering — a valid sweep, displacement, MSS, and FVG together — rather than a fixed percentage. Backtest it on your own pairs before trading it live.

Can the Silver Bullet be used on any timeframe?

Entries are typically found on the 1-minute to 5-minute charts because the FVG and MSS need to fit inside a single hour. Higher timeframes are used only for context — to mark the draws on liquidity the lower-timeframe setup will target.

How do you handle news events during the Silver Bullet hour?

Avoid taking a setup directly through a high-impact news release; the spike can fake a sweep and the spread widens. Either wait for the news-driven move to complete and then trade the cleaner displacement, or skip that window entirely.

Find the sweep, displacement, and FVG automatically

Stop eyeballing every Kill Zone by hand. Try LiquidityScan's automated scanner and market-bias tools to flag liquidity sweeps, displacement, and fresh Fair Value Gaps across forex, gold, indices, and crypto in real time — so you only act when a clean Silver Bullet sequence actually lines up.