# Seek & Destroy Profile A Smart Money Concepts / ICT concept (Named ICT models) in the LuxAlgo Library, with 1 indicator implementation. ## What is the Seek & Destroy Profile? The seek-and-destroy profile is ICT's name for a day that runs both sides and rewards neither: price pushes above a recent high to take buy stops, rotates down through a recent low to take sell stops, and finishes back inside the range without committing to a direction. Instead of one [liquidity sweep](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/liquidity-sweep/) that starts a trend, the session is a sequence of sweeps in both directions, a whipsaw environment where breakout entries and sweep-reversal entries both get stopped out. It belongs to the ICT taxonomy of session and weekly profiles, recurring day shapes traders try to classify early. Seek-and-destroy conditions are conventionally associated with low-conviction tape: sessions on or just before major data releases, holiday-thinned liquidity, and consolidation days with no obvious higher-timeframe draw nearby. The profile's practical value is mostly defensive: it is the day type the playbook says to sit out. The label comes from Michael J. Huddleston, the Inner Circle Trader, whose teaching names recurring day templates so students can classify the session in progress. Most templates in that set describe how a directional day should unfold, with manipulation one way and expansion the other, in the spirit of [accumulation-manipulation-distribution](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/accumulation-manipulation-distribution/). Seek and destroy is an exception: manipulation runs in both directions and the expansion leg never arrives, so the template's lesson is recognition and restraint rather than entry. Structurally, the day consumes the [liquidity pools](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/liquidity-pool/) on both sides of the range: buy stops above the overnight or prior-day high, sell stops beneath the matching lows, often taken during the London and New York [killzones](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/killzones/) when participation peaks. Each run looks like the start of a real move, which is what makes the profile expensive. Entries keyed to [fair value gaps](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/fair-value-gap/) or order blocks form and fail in both directions, [session liquidity](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/session-liquidity/) is spent symmetrically, and the day closes near where it opened. ## How to identify a seek and destroy day on a chart The profile is confirmed as it develops; the evidence accumulates in a recognizable order. 1. Mark the reference levels before the session: the prior day's high and low, the overnight range, and the week's opening range. 2. Watch the first breakout attempt: a push through one side that stalls without expansion or follow-through is the first warning. 3. Watch for the rotation through the opposite reference level, which converts a single failed breakout into a both-sides run. 4. Note wicks through levels with closes back inside the range; acceptance beyond a level argues for a genuine breakout instead. 5. Check the calendar: a major release later in the session or a holiday-thinned tape raises the prior odds of the profile. 6. Confirm by the close: a finish near the middle of the range after both extremes were taken is the completed signature. ## How it's calculated An ICT session template in which price raids the liquidity resting on both sides of the range and then closes back near the open. ``` 1. Mark the session open O_d and the resting liquidity on both sides: the prior day's high PDH and nearby equal highs above, the prior day's low PDL and nearby equal lows below. 2. First raid: price runs one side (for example above PDH), trades through the resting buy-side stops, then fails to keep expanding and falls back inside the range. 3. Second raid: price crosses back through O_d and runs the opposite side (below PDL), taking the sell-side stops, and again fails to hold beyond the level. 4. Price rotates back toward O_d and the session closes near the open, leaving wicks beyond both extremes. 5. Classify the session as Seek & Destroy once both sides have been raided with no sustained displacement in either direction. O_d: opening price of session d (ICT anchors it to the New York midnight open or the equities open) PDH: previous day's high, resting buy-side liquidity PDL: previous day's low, resting sell-side liquidity d: trading session being classified ``` A discretionary profile classification from ICT teaching, not a fixed formula; the weekly variant, Seek and Destroy Friday, sweeps both sides of the Monday through Thursday range. ICT flags it as most likely on major news days such as Non-Farm Payrolls and in holiday-thinned liquidity. The defining trait is stop runs on both sides with no follow-through, so breaks of the range extremes are treated as traps rather than entries. ## How traders use it - As a stand-aside filter: once both sides of the opening range or prior day have been run without displacement or follow-through, the profile becomes the working assumption, and further intraday signals are treated with skepticism rather than re-entered. - As calendar anticipation: sessions around high-impact releases are the classic candidates (macro event days, with nonfarm payrolls the textbook example), so the profile is something to expect in advance rather than diagnose after three stop-outs. - As a loss-control rule: a fixed cap on attempts fits this profile. If the first setups fail in opposite directions, the day is reclassified and trading stops, since the profile's defining feature is that it punishes persistence. - As a scheduling rule: many intraday traders size down or skip sessions with the worst prior odds, such as the day before top-tier releases, using [ICT time anchors](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/ict-time-anchors/) to structure what remains. - In review: tagging each session against the profile taxonomy, with [ICT session ranges](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/ict-session-ranges/) as the measuring frame, builds a personal base rate for how often a market prints two-sided runs. ## Seek & destroy vs related concepts - **Liquidity Sweep** (https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/liquidity-sweep/): A sweep is a single engineered run that often starts a move; seek and destroy is a day of sweeps in both directions that starts nothing. The sweep is tradable, the profile is a warning. - **Accumulation-manipulation-distribution** (https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/accumulation-manipulation-distribution/): AMD completes with a distribution leg, the real move that manipulation set up. Seek and destroy is manipulation both ways with no distribution, the template that never resolves. - **Session Liquidity** (https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/session-liquidity/): Session liquidity maps where each session's stops rest; the seek-and-destroy day is what it looks like when those pools are consumed on both sides without a directional payoff. ## FAQ ### What does a seek-and-destroy day look like on a chart? Both extremes of the overnight or opening range get taken (often the prior day's high and low as well), with wicks through the levels, closes back inside, and no sustained displacement after any of the runs. The session typically finishes near the middle of its range, having stopped out traders positioned in both directions. ### How do traders avoid seek-and-destroy conditions? Two habits help: checking the calendar, because sessions around major news releases are the classic setting, and requiring follow-through before trusting any break. There is no reliable way to identify the profile in advance; it is a classification that firms up as both sides get swept, which is why capped attempts matter more than prediction. ### Who coined the seek and destroy profile? The term comes from Michael J. Huddleston, who teaches as the Inner Circle Trader. It sits inside his taxonomy of session and weekly profiles, alongside directional templates that do resolve into an expansion leg. The underlying observation, that some sessions whipsaw both breakout and reversal traders, is older than the branding. ### Is nonfarm payrolls day always a seek and destroy profile? No. Payrolls sessions are the textbook association because pre-release positioning is thin and the initial reaction often runs both sides, but plenty of release days trend cleanly after the number. The profile is a tendency to plan around, not a rule; confirmation and capped attempts matter more than the calendar alone. ### Can you trade a seek and destroy day profitably? Some experienced traders fade the extremes after the second sweep, targeting the middle of the range and demanding structure confirmation, sometimes entering on retracements consistent with [optimal trade entry](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/optimal-trade-entry/). The more common stance in ICT teaching is that standing aside costs less than occasionally being right in a whipsaw. ### How is a seek and destroy day different from an ordinary range day? A range day respects its boundaries: price approaches the extremes and holds inside them. A seek-and-destroy day violates both extremes and then returns, so the stops beyond each boundary actually fire. The violation is the defining trait, and why the profile is costlier than a quiet range for anyone trading breaks. ## Implementations in the Library - Seek & Destroy Profile (LuxAlgo): https://www.luxalgo.com/library/indicator/seek-and-destroy-profile/ ## 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/ - Session & Weekly Profiles: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/session-and-weekly-profiles/ - Model 2022: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/model-2022/ --- Source: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/seek-and-destroy-profile/ (LuxAlgo Library, the encyclopedia of trading & technical analysis). Free to use with attribution: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/license/