The ICT Bread and Butter Sell-Setup, when aligned with a bearish Daily Bias, offers opportunities to enter short-term sell trades.
This strategy, known as the Bread-and-Butter setup, focuses on ICT trading concepts such as IPDA and the Judas Swing, delivering 1 to 3 potential scalping entries per day.
What Is the Bread and Butter Sell-Setup?
When the Daily Bias is bearish, the price tends to open near or above the previous day's high at the start of the new trading day.
In such cases, there's a strong possibility of a liquidity grab above the previous daily high, triggering the beginning of a bearish move.
The ICT Bread and Butter Sell-Setup identifies short-selling entries within the bearish trend by analyzing liquidity behavior.
Advantages and Disadvantages of the ICT Bread and Butter Trading Strategy
The ICT Bread and Butter Sell-Setup provides relatively frequent entry points, but its risk-to-reward often falls below 1.2 ratio.
Pros and Cons of the Bread-and-Butter Trading Setup:
Advantages | Disadvantages |
Good number of signals per day | Lower risk-to-reward ratio |
Covers all 3 trading sessions | Requires a deep understanding of liquidity behavior |
Trades in the direction of Daily Bias | Relies on specific times of day |
Multi-timeframe analysis and structure awareness | Signal quality depends on previous setup success |
Role of IPDA in the ICT Bread and Butter Sell-Setup
The Interbank Price Delivery Algorithm (IPDA) within this strategy operates based on two models of Offset Distribution and Re-Distribution.
Offset Distribution
In this model, IPDA manipulates prices upward beyond the previous high to halt the selling and gather the liquidity necessary for the primary move.
Re-Distribution
Here, the price moves toward buy-side liquidity, enabling Smart Money to enter premium levels (PD Array).
This temporary bullish move triggers stop-losses of short positions, providing the liquidity for the main bearish leg.
Entry Signals in the ICT Bread and Butter Sell-Setup
This strategy issues scalping signals during the New York, Asian, and London sessions.
London Session Entry
With a bearish bias, the day’s high typically forms during the London session.
At the 00:00 GMT open, a bullish move usually precedes the main bearish leg.
This upward move ends in a bullish Judas Swing, triggering the first sell entry for the London session.
New York Session Entry
If the daily high is confirmed in the London session, the New York session typically continues the bearish move.
At the CME open (8:30 AM NY time), a Judas Swing forms during the NY Kill Zone, offering another sell entry.
The take-profit target is usually the Discount Array on higher timeframes (H1, H4, or Daily).
Asian Session Entry
If the bearish bias is confirmed during the London and New York sessions, entering a short position around 7 PM NY time (0 GMT) before the Asian Session opens becomes a viable option.
Due to lower volume and slower price movement in Asia compared to London and NY, the target is limited to 15–20 pips.
Key Features of the ICT Bread and Butter Sell-Setup
The ICT Bread and Butter Sell-Setup offers multiple short entries daily, making it ideal for scalping. Key characteristics:
- Trade Duration: 1 to 2 hours
- Trade Range: 30 to 50 pips per trade
- Analysis Timeframe: 5-minute chart (M5)
- Trades per Day: 1 to 3 setups
- Risk-to-Reward Ratio: varies with price zones
- Recommended Risk: 0.5% to 1% per trade
Conclusion
The ICT Bread and Butter Sell-Setup, by evaluating the Daily Bias, provides one scalping entry per session in London, New York, and Asia. With multiple daily entries and a 30–50 pip target per trade, it's a robust strategy for short-term trades.
This setup utilizes ICT concepts, including IPDA, Judas Swing, and Liquidity Grab, for trade execution.
