# ICT 2022 model > The entry sequence taught in ICT's 2022 mentorship: a sweep of a prior high or low, a displaced market structure shift that leaves a fair value gap, and an entry on the return into that gap. The silver bullet is the same model restricted to three one-hour windows. - Canonical: https://hadalinstruments.com/glossary/ict-2022-model/ - Term set: https://hadalinstruments.com/glossary/ --- The 2022 model is the ICT vocabulary compressed into one sentence: sweep, shift, gap, return. ## The sequence, stated Four events, in order. A **sweep**: price trades through a prior high or low, a [liquidity sweep](/glossary/liquidity-sweep/) by that entry's test. A **displaced shift**: a strong move in the opposite direction breaks structure, a [market structure shift](/glossary/market-structure-shift/) delivered with [displacement](/glossary/displacement/). A **gap**: that displaced move leaves a [fair value gap](/glossary/fair-value-gap/) behind it. And a **return**: price comes back into the gap, where the entry is taken, with the stop beyond the swept extreme and the objective at liquidity on the far side. The model is named for the mentorship series in which ICT taught it in 2022. Each event carries the parameters of its own entry, and the sequence adds its own: how many bars may pass between sweep and shift, and between shift and return, before the sequence is void. Leave those unstated and any sweep followed eventually by any gap can be called a 2022 model. ## The silver bullet The silver bullet is not a separate pattern. It is the 2022 model restricted by the clock, taken only inside three one-hour windows commonly taught in New York time: **03:00 to 04:00**, inside the London open; **10:00 to 11:00**, after the New York equity open; and **14:00 to 15:00**, in the New York afternoon. Because the windows live on New York wall-clock time, they move by an hour against UTC whenever New York changes to or from daylight time, the same discipline the [kill zones](/glossary/ict-kill-zones/) require. Every silver bullet is a 2022 model, and most 2022 models are not silver bullets. The restriction is itself a claim, that the same sequence behaves differently inside those hours than outside them, and it can be tested directly by comparing the model's outcomes in and out of the windows. ## A worked sequence Constructed numbers, real rules. At 10:05 New York time, EUR/USD trades down to 1.0842, beneath the morning's low at 1.0848, and turns. Three strong candles carry it to 1.0875, through the last lower high at 1.0866, and between the first and third of those candles a bullish gap is left from 1.0853 to 1.0859. At 10:40 price dips to 1.0856, inside the gap. The sweep, the displaced shift, the gap and the return all printed, inside the 10:00 window, so by the rules this is both a 2022 model and a silver bullet. What happens after 10:40 is part of neither definition. ## The bearish form Mirror every step. Price trades above a prior high, a displaced run of candles breaks the last higher low, that run leaves a bearish fair value gap, and price rallies back into the gap. With constructed numbers: at 03:10 New York time, GBP/USD trades to 1.2718, above the overnight high at 1.2710, and turns. Three strong candles carry it to 1.2672, through the higher low at 1.2690, leaving a gap from 1.2694 to 1.2701. At 03:35 price rallies to 1.2698, inside the gap. The sequence completed inside the 03:00 window, so by the rules it is both a 2022 model and a silver bullet. ## Where the elections bite Each component has a rule that decides which events exist. The **pool rule** decides which highs and lows count as sweepable: session extremes, prior-day extremes, or any swing under a stated fractal. The **displacement rule** decides how strong the shift must be. The **gap rule** sets a minimum size below which no gap is drawn. The **component windows** decide how long the sequence may take. And the **entry and stop conventions**, entering at the gap's edge or at its [consequent encroachment](/glossary/consequent-encroachment/), with a stop beyond the swept extreme or beyond the entry candle, decide what a completed sequence risks. The campaign registers stop and entry conventions as a driver of their own in the [claims ledger](/ict/#ledger), because results that differ only in those conventions are not the same result. ## What the model owes The model's claim is compositional: that sweep, shift, gap and return in that order forecast better than any of the components alone, or in another order. That makes it unusually testable, because the components are defined elsewhere and can be counted in every combination. The datasheet that composes the sequence with its lineage visible is the [judas and silver bullet models](/ict/judas-silver-bullet-models/) instrument. Its verdict, in and out of the silver bullet windows, renders on the model’s rows in the [claims ledger](/ict/#ledger), and the [two lenses](/glossary/the-two-lenses/) keep the sequence, which is checkable, apart from its results, which only measurement can supply. ## Commonly confused with Neighbouring concepts that get used interchangeably, and the distinction that actually separates them. - **[Judas swing](https://hadalinstruments.com/glossary/judas-swing/)** — The judas swing is anchored to a session open and names the opening push that reverses. The 2022 model has no fixed anchor: any qualifying sweep followed by a displaced shift and a gap can start it. A judas swing whose reversal leaves a gap is often read as a 2022 model at the open. - **[Market structure shift](https://hadalinstruments.com/glossary/market-structure-shift/)** — The shift is one component of the model. The model adds the sweep before it and the gap entry after it; a shift that arrives without a preceding sweep, or without a gap to return to, does not complete the sequence. - **The silver bullet** — Not a separate pattern. The silver bullet is the 2022 model with a clock condition: it is taken only inside three one-hour windows. Every silver bullet is a 2022 model, and most 2022 models fall outside those windows. - **A breakout and retest** — A breakout-and-retest trade buys a broken level when price revisits it. The 2022 model enters on the return into the imbalance the shift left, not at the broken level, and requires a sweep of liquidity in the opposite direction first. ## How to measure it in your own data A definition you cannot test is a definition you have to take on trust. This is the shortest honest route from the concept to a number you computed yourself. - **Records you need** — Candle data at a declared entry timeframe; a pool rule for what can be swept; structure and displacement rules for the shift; the fair value gap rule; windows for how many bars may separate sweep from shift and shift from the return; and, for the silver bullet, a clock converted to New York wall time. - **What you compute** — Compose the sequence from its parts: flag a qualifying sweep, a displaced shift the other way within the stated window, a fair value gap printed by that shift, and a return into the gap within a second window. Record each completed sequence's outcome at stated objectives and stops, net of costs, and compare it with the same components occurring out of order or with one missing, and inside the silver bullet windows against outside them. - **What the answer tells you** — Price runs a prior low, reverses with a strong run of candles through the last lower high, leaves a gap in that run, and later dips back into the gap. Each piece is checkable on its own page; the model is the claim that the pieces together, in that order, forecast better than any of them alone. ## Questions and answers ### What is the ICT 2022 model? A four-step entry sequence: a sweep of a prior high or low, a market structure shift the other way delivered with displacement, a fair value gap left by that shift, and an entry when price returns into the gap. It is named for the mentorship series ICT published in 2022. ### What is the ICT silver bullet? The 2022 model restricted to three one-hour windows in New York time. The sequence is identical; the silver bullet adds the clock condition, on the premise that the same setup behaves better in those hours than outside them. ### What are the ICT silver bullet times? Commonly taught as three one-hour windows in New York time: 03:00 to 04:00, inside the London open; 10:00 to 11:00, after the New York equity open; and 14:00 to 15:00, in the New York afternoon. The windows are defined on New York wall-clock time, so they move against UTC when New York changes to and from daylight time. ### What is an ICT model? A named sequence built from the vocabulary's objects. The 2022 model, the silver bullet, the judas swing and the market maker model each fix an order in which sweeps, structure shifts and arrays such as gaps and blocks must appear. The objects are defined on their own pages; a model is a claim about their order. ### What is the win rate of the ICT 2022 model? Figures quoted for it rarely state the pool rule, the displacement rule, the windows, the objectives or the costs, and without those a percentage describes a selection nobody can repeat. The informative comparison is the complete sequence against its components out of order. ### Why is it called the 2022 model? It is named for the mentorship series ICT published in 2022, in which the sequence was taught as the core entry model. The year names the teaching, not a market regime. ### What is the best ICT entry model? No ranking is established here. Comparing entry models honestly needs each one stated precisely enough to be detected by rule, run over the same data with the same costs, and corrected for the number of models tried. Without that, a best model is a preference, however strongly it is held. ### What timeframe is the ICT 2022 model traded on? Teaching usually shows the sequence on low timeframes, from one to fifteen minutes, with the swept high or low taken from a higher one such as the hourly chart or the previous session. The definition works on any timeframe once the pool rule and the component windows are stated in candles of that timeframe. ### What is the difference between the 2022 model and the unicorn model? The array used for the entry. The 2022 model enters on a return into the fair value gap left by the displaced shift. The unicorn model looks for that gap overlapping a breaker block formed in the same move, and enters where the two overlap: a narrower zone chosen by a stricter rule. ### Where is the stop placed in the ICT 2022 model? Conventionally beyond the swept extreme, the high or low the sequence began by taking, with some versions tightening it to beyond the candle that entered the gap. Each convention changes the distance risked and how often the position is stopped, so a result quoted without its stop rule cannot be compared with another. ## Where it sits in the ICT sequence The ICT vocabulary in the order the method is taught, with a step for each kind of object. - **Step** — 08 of 08 [Models](https://hadalinstruments.com/ict/#step-models): the steps composed into named setups - **Also at this step** — [ICT unicorn model](https://hadalinstruments.com/glossary/ict-unicorn-model/), [Market maker model (MMXM)](https://hadalinstruments.com/glossary/market-maker-model/) - **Before it** — [Optimal trade entry (OTE)](https://hadalinstruments.com/glossary/optimal-trade-entry/) Range - **After it** — [ICT unicorn model](https://hadalinstruments.com/glossary/ict-unicorn-model/) Models - **Every step** — [The ICT vocabulary map, with every term defined](https://hadalinstruments.com/ict/#vocabulary) ## The shape, drawn The smallest arrangement the definition admits. It is a drawing of a rule, not a reading of a market — nothing here is measured, and the table below it is the authoritative version. FIG. 01 ILLUSTRATIVE - The prior low the sequence sweeps, at 12, and the last lower high the shift breaks, at 16. - The sweep: a trade beneath the prior low that closes back above it. - The displaced shift: a run of strong candles through the lower high. - The fair value gap the shift leaves, where the return is taken. - The return into the gap, where the drawing ends. The four events in order: a sweep of a prior low, a displaced shift through the last lower high, the fair value gap that shift leaves, and a return into the gap. The drawing stops at the return. Drawing the sequence establishes that its parts can occur in that order. It does not establish what follows the return, inside or outside any time window. Source [Frozen definition set — detectors W2.10 to W2.12](https://hadalinstruments.com/ict/#ledger) SHA-256 NOT APPLICABLE — ILLUSTRATIVE, NOT A MEASUREMENT ICT 2022 model: what the definition states, in full. Element | What the definition states | Sweep | A trade through a prior high or low under the pool rule, closing back inside. | Shift | A structure break the other way, delivered with displacement. | Gap | A fair value gap printed by the displaced move. | Return | Price trades back into the gap; the entry is taken there. | Component windows How many bars may separate sweep from shift, and shift from return, before the sequence is void. | election pending | Silver bullet | The same sequence, taken only inside three one-hour windows in New York time. | Not established | Whether the complete sequence forecasts better than its components alone or out of order. | ## Related terms Derived from the links this entry makes and the entries that link back to it. - [Consequent encroachment (CE)](https://hadalinstruments.com/glossary/consequent-encroachment/) The midpoint of a fair value gap, halfway between its two boundaries, which the ICT method treats as the gap's balance point; the same fifty-percent line drawn through a wick carries the same name. - [Displacement](https://hadalinstruments.com/glossary/displacement/) A candle or short run of candles whose bodies dominate their ranges — price delivered aggressively in one direction, with little trade against it, often leaving imbalances behind. - [Fair value gap (FVG)](https://hadalinstruments.com/glossary/fair-value-gap/) A three-candle imbalance: the wicks of the first and third candles fail to overlap, leaving a price band the middle candle crossed with one-sided trade. Bullish when the third candle's low sits above the first's high; bearish in mirror. - [ICT macro times](https://hadalinstruments.com/glossary/ict-macro-times/) Short windows on the New York clock, twenty to thirty minutes long, which ICT teaching singles out as the minutes price is most expected to run for liquidity or turn. - [ICT unicorn model](https://hadalinstruments.com/glossary/ict-unicorn-model/) An ICT entry setup in which a breaker block and a fair value gap, both left by the same move through structure, overlap; the entry zone is only the prices they share. Named for how rarely the two line up. - [Kill zones (ICT)](https://hadalinstruments.com/glossary/ict-kill-zones/) Named intraday time windows — Asian, London open, New York open, London close — defined on the New York wall clock, inside which the ICT methodology concentrates its setups. - [Liquidity sweep](https://hadalinstruments.com/glossary/liquidity-sweep/) Price trading through a prior swing high or low — or a cluster of equal highs or lows — and then closing back inside the old range, read as a run on the stop and entry orders resting beyond the level. - [Market structure shift (MSS)](https://hadalinstruments.com/glossary/market-structure-shift/) A counter-trend break at an intermediate or higher swing tier — the change-of-character event graded up by the significance of the swing it takes, often required to arrive with displacement before it counts. ## Where the term is in build Detector datasheets whose concepts include this term, or whose published copy uses it. Each one states the build state it has reached and the parameters it exposes, and carries no measured verdict. - [Judas & Silver Bullet Models](https://hadalinstruments.com/ict/judas-silver-bullet-models/) The named model sequences as composed events — sweep, shift, window — with full lineage. in build ## Cite This Definition APA BibTeX HTML Hadal Instruments. (2026). ICT 2022 model. Hadal Glossary. https://hadalinstruments.com/glossary/ict-2022-model/ Version 1dac472, 2026-09-15. @misc{hadal_2026_ict-2022-model, author = {Hadal Instruments}, title = {ICT 2022 model}, year = {2026}, url = {https://hadalinstruments.com/glossary/ict-2022-model/}, howpublished = {Hadal Glossary}, version = {1dac472}, note = {Pre-launch publication; version dated 2026-09-15} } Source: Hadal Instruments, ICT 2022 model. Original Research Copy Citation **Version 1dac472** identifies the commit that last changed this page in Hadal's content repository. That repository is not public, so the identifier does not resolve externally — it is published so a citation pins one specific state rather than a moving page. To obtain the exact version cited, use the [press and research route](https://hadalinstruments.com/press/).