Trading reference
Precise definitions of the concepts behind CRT and ICT trading. Each entry answers one question directly: definition first, then the detail.
Every definition
6 entries, each one complete on its own.
CRT (Candle Range Theory)
Candle Range Theory (CRT) is a method of reading price that treats a single candle's range — its high, its low, and its midpoint — as the reference zone for what price does next: price sweeps one edge of the range to take the liquidity resting beyond it, then expands toward the opposite edge.
Liquidity Sweep
A liquidity sweep is price trading through a level where resting orders are concentrated — typically just beyond a prior swing high or low — filling those orders, and then reversing back through the level rather than continuing beyond it.
Kill Zone (ICT)
A kill zone is a specific window within the trading day when liquidity and volatility concentrate, and in which ICT-style traders expect the highest-quality setups to form — rather than treating all hours of the session as equally tradeable.
Order Block
An order block is the last opposing candle before an impulsive move that breaks market structure — the final down candle before a rally that breaks a high, or the final up candle before a decline that breaks a low — marked as a zone because price frequently returns to it before continuing.
Breaker Block (ICT)
A breaker block is a failed order block: after price sweeps the liquidity beyond a swing and then breaks structure the other way, the order block it broke through flips sides, and is traded as support where it was resistance, or as resistance where it was support.
Premium and Discount
Premium and discount are the two halves of a dealing range measured from its low to its high: everything above the 50% level (equilibrium) is premium, everything below it is discount. The convention is to look for buys in discount and sells in premium, on the reasoning that a trade taken away from equilibrium starts with a worse price than one taken toward it.
Know the term, then test it
Open a chart and replay the concept candle by candle.