Tumbling Towards Excellence

The Spaces centers on Michael (ICT) urging traders to pursue excellence through discipline, ownership, and long-term, rule-based development rather than chasing instant gratification or flaunted wealth. He critiques toxicity, blame-shifting, and influencer culture, insisting that outcomes—wins or losses—must be owned. He reframes success as organic and unscheduled, built on backtesting, journaling, and strict adherence to rules. Michael explains how intuition emerges from repetition (RAS), outlines foundational Smart Money Concepts like fair value gaps (FVGs), and emphasizes a specialty approach: one market, clear time-of-day anchors, and weekly bias set from higher timeframes. He prescribes a topical study plan (e.g., Opening Range 9:30–10:00 ET, tracking the first FVG and its opposing imbalance across the week), and advocates small sizing, money management, and acceptance of inevitable drawdowns. Wealth is presented as quiet competence and independence, not consumption signaling. The aim is independence—thinking, method, and lifestyle—achieved by steady study, measured risk, and self-encouragement, with free, open resources offered to help traders develop without dependency.

Twitter Spaces Recap — Pursuing Excellence in Trading with ICT

Speakers and Context

• Primary speaker: Michael "ICT" Huddleston (host and mentor). He repeatedly refers to himself as ICT, uses first-person accounts across decades of trading and mentoring.
• Secondary voice: Unidentified co-host/interjector. Brief, one-word prompts that complete or echo Michael’s phrases; no independent viewpoints stated.
• Session context: Saturday morning (Nov 1, 2025 reference by Michael). Audience largely retail/aspiring traders investing personal time in learning.

Core Theme: Excellence Over Instant Gratification

• Michael frames “excellence” as a lifestyle and process, not a flashy outcome. It is rule-based, disciplined, patient, and purpose-driven. It foregoes superficial validation (cars, social media clout) in favor of competence, contentment, and independence.
• Success must be defined by the learner. Without a clear, reasonable definition tied to current skills and an open-ended timeline (no “expiration date”), traders will consistently miss their own targets.

Mindset and Accountability

• Filter toxicity: Constantly consuming negativity—inside and outside trading—drains decision quality, time, and energy.
• Radical ownership: Profits and losses are entirely the trader’s—no blaming mentors, markets, or “too many people using the same method.”
• Don’t schedule success: Avoid “if not by [date], I’m done.” That’s gambler’s thinking and undermines organic development.
• Expect costs: Excellence is not quick or easy. Expect setbacks, drawdowns, and difficult phases as part of the journey.
• Validate from within: Seek feedback through journaling and review, not public approval. Social media validation is a poor substitute for disciplined self-assessment.

What Excellence Looks Like (According to Michael)

• Knowing exactly what you do, when, why, and how—independent of external opinions—and having a profitable process.
• Grounded living: Quiet contentment, not ostentatious displays of wealth. Real wealth doesn’t need to flaunt; it’s boring on the outside, rich on the inside.
• Independence: No tethering to teachers or cults. ICT offers free guidance with the goal that traders become self-directed and, once consistently profitable, tune out even him.

Learning Framework: From Backtesting to Intuition

• Backtesting is non-negotiable: The first half of a trading “career” should mirror academic drills—labs, experiments, exams. It’s repetitive, sometimes boring work that builds recognition and confidence.
• Reticular Activating System (RAS): Michael explains that methodical backtesting trains the brain to filter noise and notice what matters, yielding “intuition” (e.g., predicting a car cutting in without a turn signal). With enough examples, price action begins to feel predictable in real time.
• Forward testing and sizing: After extensive observation, trade small (micros/minis, fractional FX). There’s no excuse to blow accounts given today’s position-sizing flexibility.
• Journaling: Record wins, losses, emotions, and lessons; aggressively self-encourage. Treat the inner trader like a child being nurtured into adult competence.

Rule-Based Trading and Model Adherence

• Rules are the bedrock: Excellence requires a strict, statistical, repeatable framework. If you cannot follow rules, you will not achieve excellence in any robust method.
• Specialize in one market: ICT models are time-and-price based and transferable, but mastery comes faster with focused specialization. He focuses on NQ to model this for students, but concepts map to US100 CFDs, FX majors, etc.
• Money management does the heavy lifting: Profits scale through risk control and position management, not overleverage.

Key Concepts and Techniques Highlighted

• Time and price: Core of ICT methodology. Focus on specific time windows where algorithmic behaviors are most evident.
• Opening Range study: 9:30–10:00 ET. Study the first 30 minutes to understand the daily range formation and that session’s order flow.
• “Silver Bullet” idea: Anchor off the 10:00 ET first fair value gap (FVG) aligned with a clear daily draw on liquidity. If the weekly/daily narrative suggests bullishness, look for early-session sell-side liquidity flushes followed by FVGs pointing higher and relative equal highs as targets.
• Weekly bias as “low-hanging fruit”: Use the weekly chart to identify an objective (old high/low or nearby inefficiency) with a sufficient expected range (e.g., 75 handles/pips) and trade in alignment. Not every day will be an up-close candle in a bullish week; accept occasional chop or counter days.
• FVG structure and stop placement:
  • Identify a three-candle fair value gap. For a bullish FVG, Candle 1’s low “should not be traded through.” Initial stop goes below Candle 1’s low.
  • After repeatedly observing that price rarely trades back to Candle 1 low (Michael cites outcomes like ~80% not revisiting), you can “graduate” to a tighter stop at half the range of Candle 1 (midpoint between Candle 1 high and low).
  • Critical requirement: Prove it over months before tightening stops.
• Opposing imbalances (BISI/SIBI tracking): When the first FVG in 9:30–10:00 forms, also mark the first opposing imbalance that appears right after (e.g., first BISI if the first was a SIBI). Carry those levels not only for the day but across the week to see how they interact with unfolding order flow.
• Draw on liquidity: Use relative equal highs/lows and prior swing extremes as magnets. Price will purge liquidity before continuing toward higher-timeframe objectives.
• Times to study: 8:00–8:30 ET (news/embargo window), 9:30–10:00 ET (opening range), 10:00 ET (first FVG focus), 15:00 ET (late session behavior), 08:00 ET (pre-cash open dynamics). These are repeated windows where ICT expects algorithmic behaviors to show.

Expectations Management and Industry Critique

• Inevitable drawdowns: Everyone experiences strings of losing trades. Learning to recover from drawdown without emotional derailment is part of becoming a trader.
• Beware of influencers: Many profitable influencers still dislike trading because they live under the pressure of constant public performance. Don’t adopt their validation loop.
• No magic model: The “never-loses, tiny-stop, instant-profit” system doesn’t exist. If marketed, it’s deception designed to sell a course.
• Free content ethos: ICT emphasizes he’s not selling courses or ad slots, encourages reposting his material for others to monetize, and aims to cultivate independent thinkers rather than a following tethered to him.

Analogies that Frame the Lessons

• Ant vs. Eagle: Ants represent 9-to-5, line-following, never looking up; eagles ride the wind (backtesting, rules, bias) and adjust gracefully through turbulence.
• Cooking vs. Garnishing: Young Michael obsessed over making food “look” good (garnish) instead of taste good—a warning against chasing the “Lamborghini lifestyle” over substantive competence.
• Superhero origins: Early “powers” are intermittent; consistency comes with practice. Expect your price-reading intuition to be sporadic at first.

Actionable Study Plan (Homework)

• Topical study for the week: Opening range (9:30–10:00 ET)
  • Identify the first FVG formed within 9:30–10:00 on your chosen instrument (e.g., NQ; you may also examine US100 CFD or FX majors to see cross-market repetition).
  • Mark and carry this FVG through the day and across the week.
  • Identify the first opposing imbalance (e.g., if first FVG is SIBI, then mark the first BISI) that appears immediately after; carry it through the week.
  • Study how the first FVG is used intra-day, in the afternoon session, and later in the week.
• Weekly bias formation:
  • On the weekly chart, determine the dominant objective (old high/low or nearby inefficiency). If the expected move is sufficient (e.g., ≥75 handles/pips), form a daily directional bias aligned with that draw on liquidity.
  • Within bullish bias days, prefer long setups after early sell-side liquidity purges; within bearish days, the inverse.
• Daily high/low forensic review:
  • For each day, annotate where the daily high and low formed, what liquidity was purged beforehand, and what distribution followed.
  • Build a catalog of examples with chart snapshots and written explanations.
• Risk and execution discipline:
  • Trade micros/minis or minimal FX sizing after at least six months of consistent price-reading and journaling.
  • For bullish FVG entries, use stop under Candle 1 low; only tighten to half-range after months of verified outcomes.
  • Track strike rate and expectancy; accept that profitable strategies can have sub-50% win rates.
• Journal structure:
  • For each session: intent (bias, time window, setup), execution (entry, stop, target, time), outcome, variance from plan, and emotional state.
  • Explicitly self-encourage. Note lessons without self-blame.

Risks and Pitfalls to Avoid

• Overleverage and tiny stops to “impress” or accelerate gains.
• Chasing novelty after a loss; hopping to the next guru.
• Public validation seeking for trade-by-trade reassurance.
• Locking success to a deadline (all-or-nothing thinking).
• Complicating simple rules or “putting your own spin” prematurely.

Notable Definitions in This Session

• Fair Value Gap (FVG): A three-candle imbalance; in bullish context, Candle 1 low should not be violated if the gap will hold for continuation.
• SIBI/BISI: Sell-side/buy-side inefficiency balancing zones (opposing imbalances) used to frame order flow and likely reactions.
• Draw on liquidity: The market’s tendency to reach for pools of stops resting above/below recent highs/lows or equal highs/lows.
• Opening Range: The 9:30–10:00 ET window (US cash equity open) used to structure narratives for the day.
• Silver Bullet: A focused execution model leveraging the 10:00 ET first FVG in line with the day’s and week’s liquidity objectives.
• Reticular Activating System (RAS): The brain mechanism that, through repeated focused study, learns to prioritize and recognize key patterns amid noise.

Memorable Highlights

• “Own every bit of it. Profitable or unprofitable, the outcome is in your hands.”
• “Don’t schedule your success.”
• “You will experience a series of losing trades. Learning to recover from drawdown is part of becoming a trader.”
• “Master one market. Money management does the heavy lifting.”
• “Real wealth doesn’t flaunt; excellence is quiet, independent, and rule-based.”

Closing Perspective

Michael underscores that true excellence is attainable but earned. It demands pruning toxic inputs, adopting a rule-based model, specializing, doing relentless topical study, and journaling with radical honesty and self-encouragement. The near-term goal is not to “be right” on every trade but to become consistently competent: to read time-and-price, align with higher-timeframe liquidity draws, execute one thing well, and let money management compound the results. Only then does the lifestyle of independence and calm confidence follow—without needing to prove anything to anyone.