# Judas Swing A Smart Money Concepts / ICT concept (Liquidity concepts) in the LuxAlgo Library, with 1 indicator implementation. ## What is a Judas Swing? A Judas swing is ICT's name for the false move early in a session: a push in one direction, usually shortly after a session open, that runs resting stops before the day's real move develops the other way. The name is the metaphor: the first move betrays the traders who follow it. Mechanically it is a [liquidity sweep](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/liquidity-sweep/) with a timing claim attached. It occurs in the opening portion of a session, most commonly discussed around the London and New York opens and measured against the midnight New York opening price. The term comes from Michael J. Huddleston, the mentor behind Inner Circle Trader (ICT), whose price-action framework spread through free video teachings in the 2010s and 2020s. He models the trading day as a template he calls the power of three, or [accumulation-manipulation-distribution](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/accumulation-manipulation-distribution/): a quiet build-up around the open, an engineered false move, then the genuine directional leg. The Judas swing is his name for the middle act, and the label is now standard vocabulary in smart money trading circles. Within that daily template the Judas swing is the manipulation leg: the session opens, price is pushed to where orders rest, and the true directional move follows once they are filled. Opens give it a reference point, with the midnight New York open serving as the primary [time anchor](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/ict-time-anchors/) in ICT's framework: in a bullish scenario the Judas leg trades below the open to collect sell stops, leaving price at a discount before the move up, and the bearish version mirrors it above the open. The raw material is resting orders. Overnight ranges, the prior day's high and low, and [session liquidity](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/session-liquidity/) at obvious extremes mark where stops accumulate, and the Judas swing is the visit that collects them. Timing narrows the search to the London and New York [killzones](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/killzones/), the opening hours where the model expects engineered moves. What follows matters as much as the sweep: the model wants displacement back through structure before trusting the reversal. ## How to identify a Judas swing The pattern is defined by time, level, and failure, in that order: 1. Mark the references in advance: the midnight New York open, the session open, the prior day's high and low, and the overnight or Asian extremes from the [session ranges](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/ict-session-ranges/). 2. Wait for the opening window of London or New York; under the model, a midafternoon move does not qualify however it looks. 3. Watch for an early push through one of the marked levels, the side where stops predictably rest. 4. Require failure: price rejects beyond the level, then breaks back through short-term structure with displacement, often leaving a [fair value gap](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/fair-value-gap/) in the return leg. 5. Read direction off the open: the bullish version puts in the day's low below the open early, the bearish version the day's high above it. 6. If price holds beyond the swept level and builds on it, there is no Judas swing, just a trending open that should not be faded. ## How traders use it - As directional framing: once the early move sweeps a session extreme or the overnight range and structure shifts back, the Judas leg defines the side to avoid; in this model the day's bias becomes the opposite direction, with the swept extreme as the invalidation line. - As an open-relative filter: with a bullish higher-timeframe read, traders look for the Judas move below the midnight or session open and treat longs chased above the open as poorly priced; the mirror applies for shorts. - As a timing expectation: the pattern is looked for in the first hours of London or New York rather than all day, which keeps a trader from labeling every intraday reversal a Judas swing. - As an entry framework: rather than chasing the reversal bar, traders wait for the retracement into the displacement leg, commonly an [optimal trade entry](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/optimal-trade-entry/) level or the fair value gap it left, stop beyond the swept extreme. - As a target map: once the manipulation leg is in, the [liquidity pool](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/liquidity-pool/) on the opposite side of the range becomes the draw; some practitioners project the day's reach with [standard-deviation projections](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/standard-deviation-projections/) of that leg. ## Judas swing vs related ICT concepts - **Liquidity Sweep** (https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/liquidity-sweep/): The sweep is the general mechanic: a run through a level that fails to hold. The Judas swing is the scheduled special case: a sweep expected near a session open, misdirecting the day's first participants. - **Accumulation-manipulation-distribution** (https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/accumulation-manipulation-distribution/): AMD is the whole-day template; the Judas swing is only its middle act. Sweeps can be traded without the daily template, but the Judas label only makes sense inside it. - **Killzones** (https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/killzones/): Killzones answer when, the Judas swing answers what. The killzone is the window in which the false move is expected; outside it, the same price action does not earn the name. ## FAQ ### Is a Judas swing just a liquidity sweep? It is a liquidity sweep with a schedule. The sweep describes the mechanic, running stops beyond a level and failing to hold it, while the Judas swing adds session context: the false move comes early, near a session open, and sets up the day's real direction. Every Judas swing sweeps liquidity; not every sweep is a Judas swing. ### When does the Judas swing usually happen? It is most commonly discussed in the early portion of the London session and around the New York open, measured against the midnight New York opening price. It is an expectation, not a rule: plenty of sessions open and simply trend without a false move first, so the pattern is confirmed by the failure, never assumed from the clock. ### What time is the London Judas swing? ICT's materials most often place it in the London killzone, roughly 2:00 to 5:00 a.m. New York time, often in the first hour or two of that window. His stated windows vary across different series of teachings, so traders treat the killzone as the search area rather than expecting a fixed minute. ### How do you trade a Judas swing? In the ICT model: establish a higher-timeframe bias, wait for the opening push against it to sweep a marked level, demand displacement back through structure, then enter on the retracement, stop beyond the swept extreme, target the opposite side's liquidity. The confirmation steps are the substance; skipping them turns the idea into guessing that every open reverses. ### Does a Judas swing happen every day? No. It is an expectation the model checks for, not a law. Trend days routinely open and run without any false move, and news-driven sessions can overwhelm the template entirely. Treating the pattern as mandatory leads to fading strong opens, which is exactly the error the concept warns against. ## Implementations in the Library - Ultimate AMD Indicator (LuxAlgo): https://www.luxalgo.com/library/indicator/ultimate-amd-indicator/ ## Related concepts - Liquidity Sweep: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/liquidity-sweep/ - Liquidity Pool: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/liquidity-pool/ - Session Liquidity: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/session-liquidity/ - Buy-side Liquidity: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/buy-side-liquidity/ - Sell-side Liquidity: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/sell-side-liquidity/ - Inducement: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/inducement/ - Equal Highs/lows As Liquidity: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/equal-highs-lows-as-liquidity/ - Trendline Liquidity: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/trendline-liquidity/ - Low-resistance vs High-resistance Liquidity Runs: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/low-resistance-vs-high-resistance-liquidity-runs/ - Draw on Liquidity: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/draw-on-liquidity/ --- Source: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/judas-swing/ (LuxAlgo Library, the encyclopedia of trading & technical analysis). Free to use with attribution: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/license/