Why I stopped trading ICT
I was one of the first to bring ICT to an Israeli audience. Here is why I moved away from it, and what I trade instead.
In 2021 I was among the first people talking about ICT in Israel. I studied it deeply, I taught it, and I could explain every idea on a chart. So this is not an article from someone who tried it for a week. It is from someone who believed in it.
What ICT gave me
It taught me to read a chart with intent. Liquidity, structure, where the obvious stops are. I still look at markets differently because of those years, and I am grateful for that.
Where it broke for me
The problem was never the ideas. It was what happened in the moment. Is this an order block or not? Is this the displacement, or the next one? Two people can look at the same chart and both be right according to the method. That flexibility feels like skill when you win, and like your own fault when you lose.
And that is exactly where I lived for a long time. I entered too early: mindset. I closed too early: mindset. I changed a trade halfway: mindset. Every result became a verdict on me, not on the method.
If a rule can be read two ways, you cannot test it. And if you cannot test it, you do not know if it works.
The question that changed everything
At some point I stopped asking how to get better at deciding in real time, and started asking how to decide less in real time. That question pushed me to write rules that a computer could follow: a clear entry, a clear stop, a clear exit, and nothing left to interpret.
Once a rule is that clear, something new becomes possible: you can run it over years of data and see how it behaves. Its good months, its bad months, its worst losing streak. You stop guessing whether it works. You measure it.
What I trade today
Today I trade NQ and EUR/USD with mechanical systems. Every idea goes through a backtest, then I try to break it. Only what survives goes live, and the live results go into the journal, losing days included.
I am not telling you ICT is wrong. I am telling you that for me, the missing piece was not a better concept. It was a process I could test, repeat, and stop blaming myself for.
— Alon