# Model 2022 A Smart Money Concepts / ICT concept (Named ICT models) in the LuxAlgo Library. ## What is Model 2022? Model 2022 is the intraday entry model taught in the free 2022 ICT YouTube mentorship. The community adopted the year as the model's name. It is a fixed three-beat sequence: raid, shift, entry. First, price runs a visible pool of resting stops (a [liquidity sweep](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/liquidity-sweep/) of an old low when hunting longs, an old high for shorts), ideally into a higher-timeframe objective. Second, price turns with displacement: an energetic leg that closes through a recent opposing swing point, the market structure shift (MSS). Third, the entry is the retracement into the [fair value gap](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/fair-value-gap/) the displacement leg leaves behind, stop beyond the raided extreme, target at the liquidity on the far side. In practice it's run top-down: bias and the pool to be raided are read on something like the 15-minute to hourly chart, and the sweep-shift-retrace is executed on 1-5 minute charts, usually inside the London or New York morning [killzones](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/killzones/). "Model 2022" is community shorthand rather than a formal spec (traders differ on timeframes and on how strict the structure shift must be), but the raid → MSS → gap-entry skeleton is the stable, recognizable core. The source is the free mentorship series Michael J. Huddleston, the Inner Circle Trader, published on YouTube across 2022, where the sequence was presented as a single repeatable setup worth mastering on its own; indicator names like "One Setup For Life" echo that framing. The model is the executable form of ICT's wider session narrative: the raid corresponds to the manipulation phase of the [accumulation-manipulation-distribution](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/accumulation-manipulation-distribution/) template, and the displacement leg that follows is the distribution the entry tries to join. Resting orders above old highs and below old lows are the fuel: each raided [liquidity pool](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/liquidity-pool/) supplies the counterparties the reversal leg needs, which is why the model insists the sweep come first. Two honest caveats attach. First, the model is discretionary at every joint: which pool counts as the draw, how much energy qualifies as displacement, and which gap is the entry all vary by operator, so two traders can run Model 2022 on the same chart and take different trades. Second, the smart-money framing is an interpretation rather than a documented mechanism; what is checkable on the chart is the sequence itself, and no published, independently verified track record establishes its edge. Treat it as a structured playbook to test, with session liquidity and time-of-day context doing much of the filtering work. ## How to identify a Model 2022 setup on a chart The setup is a fixed sequence, so identification is a checklist run top-down from a bias timeframe to an execution timeframe. 1. On the 15-minute to hourly chart, mark the resting pools: prior-day high and low, the session extremes tracked by [ICT session ranges](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/ict-session-ranges/), and obvious equal highs or lows. 2. Establish the draw: decide which pool price is being pulled toward and in which direction the higher-timeframe profile points. 3. Wait for the raid: price must trade through one of the marked levels, ideally during an active window, taking out the stops resting beyond it. 4. Demand displacement: an energetic reversal leg that closes through the most recent opposing swing point on the execution timeframe, printing the market structure shift and leaving an imbalance behind. 5. Mark the gap the displacement leg left; the entry is the retracement into it, either resting a limit in the gap or acting on its first touch, consistent with [FVG behavior rules](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/fvg-behavior-rules/). 6. Set invalidation beyond the raided extreme and the objective at the opposing pool; if any beat of the sequence is missing, the setup does not qualify. ## How traders use it - As a complete intraday playbook: the sequence supplies the trigger (the retrace into the gap), the invalidation (beyond the swept high or low), and the objective (the opposite pool), so a trade is either fully formed or not taken at all. - As a filter on structure breaks: a shift only counts here after a sweep and with displacement; structure breaks without a preceding raid are treated as continuation noise rather than reversal signals, which is the model's main defense against false shifts. - As a session routine: mark the pools left by Asia, London, and the prior day, wait for one to be taken during an active window, then stalk the shift-and-retrace on the execution timeframe instead of chasing the sweep itself. - With time gating: many practitioners only take the sequence inside specific windows anchored to New York time, leaning on [ICT time anchors](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/ict-time-anchors/) such as the 8:30 news embargo lift and the 9:30 equities open, and stand down outside them. - With projected targets: when the opposing pool is distant, [standard-deviation projections](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/standard-deviation-projections/) of the manipulation leg supply interim objectives for scaling out along the way. ## Model 2022 vs neighboring ICT concepts - **Accumulation-manipulation-distribution** (https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/accumulation-manipulation-distribution/): AMD, the power-of-three template, is the narrative arc for a whole session: build a range, run a false move, deliver the real one. Model 2022 is the tradeable core of the turn between the last two phases, specifying trigger, stop, and target where AMD only describes shape. - **Optimal Trade Entry** (https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/optimal-trade-entry/): OTE locates entries in the 62-79% retracement band of a reversal leg; Model 2022 enters at the fair value gap the displacement leaves. The zones frequently overlap, and many traders require the gap to sit inside the OTE band before taking the trade. - **Breaker Block** (https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/breaker-block/): A breaker is an alternative entry zone born from the same sweep-and-shift anatomy: the failed order block that price broke back through. When the entry gap overlaps a breaker, the combination is the higher-confluence entry some traders call a Unicorn, but the surrounding sequence is still Model 2022. - **Killzones** (https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/killzones/): Killzones are time filters, not setups: the fixed windows when raids and displacement are statistically most active. Model 2022 is event-sequenced and can technically form at any hour; hunting it inside killzones is how most practitioners keep the event and the clock aligned. ## FAQ ### What timeframes does the ICT 2022 model use? There's no single official pairing. Commonly the bias and the pool to be raided are read on the 15-minute to hourly chart, while the sweep, market structure shift, and fair-value-gap entry are executed on 1-to-5-minute charts during the London or New York morning. Higher-timeframe versions of the same sequence exist; the structure of the model doesn't change, only the scale. ### Why is it called the 2022 model? Because it's the model at the center of the free 2022 ICT YouTube mentorship, and viewers adopted the year as its name. It isn't a claim that the setup only worked in 2022; the label is community shorthand for the raid → market structure shift → fair value gap entry sequence taught in that series, which traders continue to apply on current price action. ### Is Model 2022 the same as the Silver Bullet? No, though a single trade can qualify as both. The Silver Bullet is time-boxed: a fair value gap entry hunted inside specific one-hour windows, such as 10 to 11 am New York. Model 2022 is event-sequenced, requiring a raid and a market structure shift but no fixed clock window. The entries look similar because both resolve into a gap retracement. ### What invalidates a Model 2022 trade? The canonical invalidation is price trading back beyond the raided extreme, which says the sweep was not the turn. Many traders also abandon the setup if the entry gap is run through without any reaction, or if the structure shift is fully retraced before the entry fills. The stop placed beyond the swept high or low encodes the first rule mechanically. ### Does the entry have to be a fair value gap? The gap is the canonical entry, but variants exist. Some traders enter at the [order block](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/bullish-bearish-order-block/) that launched the displacement, at a breaker left by the shift, or at the 62-79% retracement band. What stays constant is the sequence: no raid and no displacement means no trade, whatever zone is used for the fill. ### Does Model 2022 work outside index futures and forex? It was taught primarily on index futures and forex majors, and it depends on markets with well-defined sessions and visible resting liquidity. Traders do apply it to metals and crypto, where the session logic is weaker but sweeps still occur. Thin or gap-prone instruments undermine the clean sweep-shift-retrace anatomy, so results vary by asset and deserve testing. ### Is there proof the 2022 model is profitable? No published, independently audited track record exists, and the model's heavy discretion makes clean backtesting hard: which pools count and what qualifies as displacement are judgment calls. Public backtests of mechanized versions report mixed results depending on those definitions. The defensible position is that it structures trades well, with a defined trigger, stop, and target, while its edge remains for each trader to verify. ## Related concepts - Silver Bullet: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/silver-bullet/ - Unicorn: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/unicorn/ - One-shot-one-kill: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/one-shot-one-kill/ - Seek & Destroy Profile: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/seek-and-destroy-profile/ - Session & Weekly Profiles: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/session-and-weekly-profiles/ --- Source: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/model-2022/ (LuxAlgo Library, the encyclopedia of trading & technical analysis). Free to use with attribution: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/license/