Crack the Code: How to Properly Study ICT Concepts

Since the beginning of 2022, I've seen Smart Money Concepts gain more and more traction. Many traders are either shifting their strategies or entering the markets as fresh traders using the concepts taught by ICT. However, there are many playlists, videos, teachings, tweets and independent teachers on the internet. That can easily overwhelm the average student, and hinder his success in trading.

In this article, I'll guide you through the best method to properly study ICT's material and get ahead in the coming months and years. It's not simply about the content you consume, but how you consume it as well.

Different Types of Content

Michael (ICT) has been putting out content on various platforms since 2010. That library of content will certainly get most students confused or lost during their apprenticeship. The good news is that you do not need to watch all of it!

Roughly 80% of consequences come from 20% of causes.
~ Vilfredo Pareto

Indeed, if you carefully select the lectures, you can get all of the knowledge you need to build a profitable trading strategy. Of course, that has to be done with a proper learning framework as well, but we'll touch on that later.

All the content ICT puts out can be categorized into 2 different types :

• Lectures
• Commentaries

Lectures are where you are going to learn most of the concepts. They are the foundation of your knowledge base. That's where you're going to acquire all the theory behind the different strategies and models.

Commentaries are the types of videos where Michael goes over the price action and literally comments on it, marking up the chart at the same time, and calling price live.

They both complement each other. Watching the lectures is not effective if you don't watch their live implementation in the commentaries, and watching the
commentaries alone is going to be hard because will not have the proper knowledge to fully understand what is unfolding.

If the core content is the periodical element table of trading, all the formulas are in the commentaries.

Ideal Watching Order

One of the question I see the most on social media is "what series should I start with?" or "should I watch this particular playlist?". I will clear up the cloud here and now. Here is, in my opinion, the best way a new student can go from unfamiliar to smart money professional :

1. W.E.N.T Series
2. Market Maker Series (2021)
3. OTE Pattern Recognition Series
4. Scout Sniper Basic Field Guide
5. Core Content (Month 1 to 12)

You could potentially make everything work with only the Core Content, but the first four series are going to prepare you. Trust me, watching them is worth the time.

If you didn't notice yet, I've only included lectures here, not the commentaries. The reason is simple, there are many commentary series as well, and they are all equally good, depending on your objective as a trader.

• If you want to be a Forex trader, watch the 2021 Private Commentaries, start
  in January, all the way to December.
• If you want to be a futures trader, watch the 2022 Mentorship, as well as the
  2023 Mentorship.

Lots of respect for @TRSTNGLRD for creating and actively maintaining his archive of ICT content. He is by far my favorite trader on Twitter. I can see he has genuine passion for the craft.

Effective Consuming

The last thing you want experience is spending 100+ hours on watching content ... in vain. Unfortunately, that is the biggest problem among ICT students. They make numerous consumer mistakes, and end up wasting their time.

There is a whole science behind effective learning and consuming, but I'll stick to the practical advice. It's pretty simple and self-explanatory :

• Submit to the time.
• Pay attention
• Take Notes
• Do it on your own
• Practice

First of all, whatever timeline you have for success at this moment, double it. You will not become a successful trader in the next month, not even in the next year. Submit to the time! Studying is long, difficult and requires a lot of efforts.

Second, you can't simply treat the playlists as your typical Netflix show. You absolutely CANNOT binge-watch the lectures or the commentaries. You brain needs to process all the information and make connections.

You don't learn ICT concepts, you experience them.

Every time you learn about a new concept, a new PD Array, or a new macro, go in the charts and experience it for yourself, multiple times. Take notes, screenshots, etc. This will have the effect of growing your knowledge base and increasing the amount of connections your brain can make. Those are the same neuronal pathways your brain will use when you're going to be looking for a trade setup.

There is no point in watching the content, if you're not going to test it out yourself. They have to be hard coded in your brain. It is like learning a new language, you want the words and grammar to become second nature. It eventually will... if you submit to the time.

The Study Journal

This is this article's gem, the game changer. I cannot put more emphasis on how important this is. Holding a study journal is like holding a lantern in a dark forest. It lights up the details, and allows you to discover things you couldn't see before.

This journal focuses heavily on writing. Writing gives you clarity, and clarity is what you need when you are learning something, or even when you want to come up with new ideas. You thoughts need to be clear.

The study journal is really simple: every day, start writing about what you've learned on a black page. Maybe it is a new propriety about Fair Value Gaps that you didn't know before, or a new weekly profile. Whatever it is, just write about it. Explain it in your own words. Next, you want to make connections with other concepts, related, or not, to ICT. It can even not be related to trading at all. Don't forget, the goal here is simply clarity.

You can also try and deconstruct the concept as a whole. How did ICT put this together? How could you have put it together yourself with the things you already know? What are the prime concepts that make up this one? A clear understanding of a simple concept will yield you way more results than an unclear understanding of a complex one.

NOTE: The study journal is independent from your notes. You still need to take accurate notes on the lectures and commentaries.

I will make a whole guide on how to create an effective study journal, what software is best for the task, how to organize it, etc. Make sure to subscribe to the newsletter to get it as soon as it is out!

It's Your Turn Now

You now have everything you need to become a successful trader. It might take 3-4 years if you start now, but what is 4 years of hard work next to 40 years of freedom?

end.

You feel like you know enough but still can't find consistency in trading? You've watched countless hours of ICT content, read all the books on the market, and yet, you can't figure this trading thing out?

You're almost there! You may just need a competent coach!

Click here to apply for my complete one-on-one coaching program!

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