Sqa's Introduction Guide to ICT's Work & Methods v1

FTMO Trader Scouting

sqa

Village Scribe
Welcome! This is my first crack at making a Guide to Michael J. Huddleston's mentoring & teaching work. Commonly just known as "ICT" or "The Inner Circle Trader".

The point of this guide is straight forward: ICT has produced at least 200 hours of video & commentary on market education & insight. As a result, there is both a separate Vocabulary that arises, along with confusion on "Well, where do I start?".

At the time I'm making this version of the guide, ICT's "new" website isn't available yet. Once it is, that'll make referencing work a lot easier. In the mean time, this is my Basic Outline for where to "Start" with ICT.

But one basic understanding of ICT's video library first: ICT started teaching on another forum (BabyPips) in 2011. At the beginning, ICT's work was structured more loosely and dealing in more of the "classic technical" analysis field. This tends to overwhelm all but the most dedicated of listeners, as ICT has a trading tool bag to fill a small warehouse.

However, as he's whittle away the people that just want him to "do the work for him" (something ICT loathes), he's released most of his major tool bag, which covers 20 years of professional trading and deep insights from actual institutional traders. These types of insights are not something you normally find, mostly as the people they teach the Central Bank & Major Bank side information to are better vetted. ICT is a committed non-conformist and, now, Christian. He'll also drop mind-blowing insights as complete "rabbit trail" discussions in the middle of a video or live session.

As ICT approaches the last series he's producing to teach, expect this guide to change a bit by next year. There might be a "better" order to proceed through in the future, and this is my own personal "take" on the Order. This is just my first attempt at a list, as quite a lot of the advanced material is really only available off my Hard Drive.


Code:
[SIZE=13px]Note: I normally recommend playing the videos in a client other than Windows Media Player.  Either VLC or the CCCP-Codec Project will fit the bill pretty well.  If you already know how to watch "downloaded" Video Content, then you already have this, so don't worry about it.

I'd also recommend a YouTube Video Download tool.  I prefer to have the videos in a separate client.  It mights starting, stopping and zooming in a lot easier.[/SIZE]

Start Here:

First 4 Videos
- Right-Click and download videos #1 to #4. Either from the links here or off the webpage.

That means Videos:
1) What Every New & Or Aspiring Forex Trader... Wants To Know
2) The Excellence Of Execution
3) Forex Risk Management
4) Contending With Trade Psychology

This is the Core and the Place to start. You will *NEED* to take notes. ICT is giving you access to the ability to make more money than all but the highest of paying careers. It takes time, effort and patience. It's an entire skill set you need to learn.

Also, these videos are intentionally without Audio. ICT did this so you actually have to pay attention. He likes to force that on people.

5) Handling Losses and Inevitable Drawdowns
6) Major Market Analysis

This is the end of the "introductory" series. Video #5, "Handling Losses & Inevitable Drawdowns" is he single most valuable video. This isn't a joke. That 25 minute video is, after sorting out all of his work, the single most important piece. Without taking the concept to heart, you're just going to hurt yourself in Forex or any trading for that matter. While technically separate from the "technical" parts of Trading, controlling your Risk is the only way you stay in the game. And this lesson comes from a Man that lost 3 million at one point, along with a $500,000 USD in 1 month. (And this was when 500k was worth a lot more!) Learn from his teaching, even if you never use anything else he teaches, this video alone *will* provide you a chance at a career in trading.

Next, Read These:

1) Humble Beginngins
2) Trading Major Reactions
3) Keys to Directional Bias
4) On Professionalism, by Jack, founder of FXGears and also a professional trader


From here, there's going to something of a divergence from everyone for "What to learn next?". At this time, I would make this suggestion:

Basic Outline of Next Series:

1) "What Every New And/Or Aspiring Forex Trader Wants To Know" or the "WENT" series from 2014. This is currently only on his website, so I don't know if the links will work when someone tries this.

1) WENT #1
2) WENT #2
3) WENT #3
4) WENT #4
5) WENT #5

This is the "rebooted" initial teaching series. While it's very useful, I think the original, silent series, is still the place I would suggest to start.

Scout Sniper Field Guide Series:

1) Scout Sniper Field Guide #1
2) Scout Sniper Field Guide #2
3) Scout Sniper Field Guide #3
4) Scout Sniper Field Guide #4
5) Scout Sniper Field Guide #5
6) Scout Sniper Field Guide #6
7) Scout Sniper Field Guide #7
8: Scout Sniper Field Guide #8

The Sniper series is over 10 hours of videos, all focused around picking out 1 trader per week and landing it. This is ICT's preferred personal style of trading these days, and it works more than well enough, even in the very low volatility times. This is also the series where Order Blocks (Video #3) is introduced. I also believe this is the first time he calls his Risk Management method "The Shield", but that might be wrong.

Personal Suggestion: It's at this point I should also make note that ICT expects you to Demo trade for at least 6 months. I would recommend at least 3 months of "Sandbox" trading: figure out what 2%, 1% and .5% risk are, and don't attempt to compound it. Journal it up, but this is mostly about getting comfortable behind the charts. After that, for 3 months, set a "clean" Demo Account up on MyFXBook or your preferred analytics tracking tool, and treat that as "real" money. (Or as close as you can get)

Yes, this takes time. But if, after 4 years of work (with plenty of time to do other things), you're making far more money than pretty much anyone out of college will be. And you've been making money along the way. As ICT points out, 100k in a brokerage account, making 10% per month, is netting you 120k per year (before taxes). Do you think you can live on 120k a year? :)


Trade Plan Development Series:

1) Trading Plan Development Series - Part 1 ** Link doesn't work off the Website & no YouTube version.
2) Trading Plan Development Series - Part 2
3) Trading Plan Development Series - Part 3
4) Trading Plan Development Series - Part 4
5) Trading Plan Development Series - Part 5
6) Trading Plan Development Series - Part 6
7) Trading Plan Development Series - Part 7

#1 Missing really hurts. It's a pretty important set of insight for this series and the tools that go along with it. This is an older series of ICT's, so there's a lot more focus on the "technical" tools compared to a more "Price Action" focus in the more recent works.


From Here to the Massive Library:

This is where life gets interesting with ICT's work. If you get a hold of the Torrent, you get an increasingly large number of video options. Most should be fine with his YouTube Channel and Website (once it's updated).

Suggested Series would be:
1) Power of Three; Power of Three; and anything else he's said on Power of Three.
2) Precision Trading (2014, website-only)
3) Forexmas 2012
4) Central Bank Dealer's Range Video
5) Everything having to do with Market Structure
6) "Inside the Range" teaching (there's a Live Session from August 2012 that's really important)

Past that, ICT has dropped Knowledge Bomb after Knowledge Bomb in the live sessions. However, some are better than others & there's been problems with the recordings. Probably the most useful one he's dropped was using a Daily Chart, line out the "Month Open", and then highlight the trading days leading up to Non-farm Payroll. Add a 10-period Williams%R, and you've got a great chart showing how the market is manipulated. (Plus a very good level to watch for Retracement.)

There are also individual "modules" on different topics. There are certain tactics to use on the European Pairs for London Open, New York Open and London Close. Plus other ones for Asian Session and different parts of the skill set. There's a lot of "extra" tools, but focus firstly on the main series: Even the first 4 videos is enough that, with practice, you can make it to being a "Professional" Trader. It's just not going to happen over night. This is, at the end of it, not a "get rich quick" scheme. It's a "learn a skill, make loads of money from that skill" methodology.

GLGT - Good Luck & Good Trading.
 
Sqa, I think I speak on behalf of all ICT followers when I say I can't thank you enough for your efforts in putting this guide together. I don't believe it was an easy task. Much appreciated.
 
It actually didn't take that much time to produce the guide, minus the fact I've watched everything nearly everything (still a few bits to go, however).

I also should probably think about killing the embedded links (it wasn't my intention to actually do that; they're coded as Hyperlinks), as it's hard to load the page.

Still, if anyone else has a different Order, I'm more than willing to include an alternate Text list with explanation for your Order. Which reminds me to check in with ICT on the matter. Mostly as I'm pretty sure he'd never make a full guide.

I need to sit down and list all of the "tool box" modules for suggestions as well. And maybe include my own text notes in the future (though a lot of them are hand-written). Was it SlugFX that also had a pretty large set of notes?
 
Hello SQA
i don't able to see the frist 4 video .....its shows unavailable in browser...I tried lots of time in
different browser...How can i see the first four video.....can you upload this video here ???? please
thanks
 
talha007 said:
Hello SQA
i don't able to see the frist 4 video .....its shows unavailable in browser...I tried lots of time in
different browser...How can i see the first four video.....can you upload this video here ???? please
thanks

"- Right-Click and download videos #1 to #4. Either from the links here or off the webpage."

You need to save them to your computer, then they will play in whatever client you use.
 
ICT's webpage has been updated, so I'll endeavor to update the links in the Guide Monday. (I'm expecting a slow trading day, so might at well get something useful done)

I'll also figure out a way to kill the YouTube embed aspect, so the webpage doesn't kill your Browser with Flash instances.
 
Nicely done.. This would worth gold back in the days when i tried to figure out Michael's method.
 
Thank you for this info and advice- I have been using VLC for a while. Your advice on using it to stream the ICT videos has gotten me to explore more its features. In addition to using it to stream videos it can capture them as well.

This can be done from the first Menu List Item MEDIA
Media > Convert/Save (Ctrl + R)
this opens a dialogue box : >> Click on the Menu Tab that is for Network
enter the URL of the streaming source:
for example: "http://theinnercircletrader.com/Tutorials/Sniper/Sniper_8.mp4"
Then Hit the Convert/Save Button at the bottom left of the box

A new Dialogue box appears showing the source URL and settings options
the convert button is ON

I do not check either ::Display the Output:: or ::Deinterlace::

I find that the default profile "Video - H.264 + Mp3(Mp4) "
works in playback with VLC but does not provide sound in Media Player
I tried the Profile "Video for YouTube HD " and it works in both VLC and Media Player
but the some times the conversion would fail instantly.

Specify an output file location for example; "C:\Users\Public\Videos\SS-8.mp4"

Review you settings then click the START button

When the conversion is running the screen is blank and there is no sound but you can see the position bar move and the beginning and ending counters indicate the progress.

I find that best time to get the files saved is early morning US eastern time- say Midnight to 5 am

I like having the files offline because the viewing is smoother and can easily be paused, rewound or jumped forward to review a specific topic.

Thanks again for all the work you, ICT and everyone else is putting in to make this powerful knowledge available
 
I thought I posted a link to the V2 of the guide in this thread:

http://fxgears.com/forum/index.php/topic,410.0.html

It won't load all of the YouTube links, which helps.

Also, while you can use VLC to transcode the stream, that's not really what I was advocating. On the files on his webpage, just Right Click and "Save Link as..." function. From YouTube, I use a YouTube downloader to get them. Though re-encoding them wouldn't hurt, as FLV encoding his space inefficient.
 
Yup.. that's the best option of course. But VLC can change the format (transcode) for people with specific devices in mind.

Then again, mp4 is pretty well supported these days.
 
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