# IPDA & Price Delivery Theory Also known as: interbank price delivery algorithm, algorithmic price delivery, market efficiency paradigm, IPDA look-backs 20/40/60. A Smart Money Concepts / ICT concept (Displacement & delivery) in the LuxAlgo Library, with 2 indicator implementations. ## What is IPDA & Price Delivery Theory? IPDA, the Interbank Price Delivery Algorithm, is the ICT premise that price is delivered rather than merely discovered: moved with intent between pools of resting liquidity on one side and inefficiencies like [fair value gaps](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/fair-value-gap/) on the other. Price delivery theory is the grammar built on that premise. At any moment the market is said to be doing one of four things (expanding, retracing, reversing, or consolidating) while traveling between reference points known as [PD arrays](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/pd-arrays/). The framework's constant question is the [draw on liquidity](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/draw-on-liquidity/): which old high, old low, or unfilled imbalance price is currently reaching for. Time is the second pillar. IPDA data ranges are rolling look-backs of 20, 40, and 60 trading days; the highest high and lowest low inside each window are treated as the levels the algorithm references for short-, intermediate-, and long-term delivery. One caveat belongs up front: a literal interbank algorithm steering price is an article of the teaching, not something verifiable from public data. Markets are heavily algorithmic in general, and most traders hold IPDA as a lens (a disciplined way to organize liquidity, imbalance, and time) rather than a testable claim about a specific machine. ## How to map IPDA data ranges The look-backs are the concrete, chartable piece of the theory, taken from the daily chart. 1. Count back 20, 40, and 60 trading days from the current session (trading days, so weekends and holidays are excluded). 2. Mark the highest high and lowest low inside each window; those six levels frame the short-, intermediate-, and long-term dealing ranges. 3. Note which extreme price has recently rejected and which it is traveling toward; within the theory, delivery runs from one side of a range toward the opposite side's liquidity or an imbalance in between. 4. Roll the windows forward as sessions pass; the look-backs are rolling, so the reference levels refresh with time. ## How traders use it - As a bias framework: the first question each session is where the current draw sits (an old high or low, or an unfilled imbalance). Trading toward that objective is trading with delivery; trading against it demands stricter rules. - As level generation: the 20-, 40-, and 60-day highs and lows act as higher-timeframe targets and reversal zones, and a decisive break of one is read as the market reaching for the next range out. - As state classification: labeling the current leg as expansion, retracement, reversal, or consolidation keeps a trader from fading fresh [displacement](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/displacement/) or chasing price in the middle of a range. - As a time filter: delivery is taught as time-dependent, so the framework is usually applied inside session windows like [killzones](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/killzones/) instead of uniformly around the clock. ## IPDA vs neighboring ICT concepts - **Institutional Order Flow** (https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/institutional-order-flow/): Institutional order flow is the directional judgment (which side is being delivered right now). IPDA is the premise underneath it: a theory of how delivery works at all, supplying the levels and states that order-flow reads run on. - **Market Maker Models** (https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/market-maker-models/): Market maker models are schematic templates: buy and sell programs staged around a dealing range. They assume the delivery premise; IPDA and price delivery theory is that premise, stated as a general framework rather than a setup. - **Change in State of Delivery** (https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/change-in-state-of-delivery/): A change in state of delivery is a micro event: the moment candles flip from delivering one side to the other. It is one of the turn signals used inside the broader delivery framework, not the framework itself. ## FAQ ### What does IPDA stand for? Interbank Price Delivery Algorithm: the ICT name for the idea that price is delivered by an algorithmic process that seeks liquidity and rebalances inefficiency on a schedule tied to time. Whether such a specific mechanism exists is not verifiable from public data; the acronym names the premise the rest of the delivery framework is built on. ### What are the IPDA look-back periods? Rolling windows of the last 20, 40, and 60 trading days on the daily chart. The highest high and lowest low inside each window frame the short-, intermediate-, and long-term dealing ranges, and the levels refresh as new sessions print. They are reference levels rather than signals; price reaching one still needs a setup around it. ### Is IPDA proven to exist? No, and that is worth being clear about. Markets are overwhelmingly algorithmic in execution, but there is no public evidence of one central interbank algorithm delivering price as the teaching describes. Most traders hold it loosely: the framework's value is the disciplined map of liquidity, imbalance, and time it produces, which does not depend on the literal claim. ## Implementations in the Library - CISD Projections (LuxAlgo): https://www.luxalgo.com/library/indicator/cisd-projections/ - HTF CISD Projections (LuxAlgo): https://www.luxalgo.com/library/indicator/htf-cisd-projections/ ## Related concepts - Accumulation-manipulation-distribution: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/accumulation-manipulation-distribution/ - Change in State of Delivery: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/change-in-state-of-delivery/ - Displacement: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/displacement/ - Institutional Order Flow: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/institutional-order-flow/ - Market Maker Models: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/market-maker-models/ - Smart Money Technique Divergence: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/smart-money-technique-divergence/ - Smart Money Reversal: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/smart-money-reversal/ --- Source: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/ipda-and-price-delivery-theory/ (LuxAlgo Library, the encyclopedia of trading & technical analysis). Free to use with attribution: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/license/