ICT Concepts Decoded: ICT Trading Concepts Explained on Real Charts
By Steve H — reads every firm’s official rulebook, checks prices and codes daily, and maintains the Enigma Score · Methodology · Editorial policy · Last updated October 28, 2026
In short: ICT stands for The Inner Circle Trader, the trading educator Michael J. Huddleston, who created concepts such as liquidity, fair value gaps, market structure shifts, order blocks and killzones. ICT Concepts Decoded is FundedEnigma's free series that explains each concept on real CME NQ futures charts, with a video and a full written guide.
ICT stands for The Inner Circle Trader, Michael J. Huddleston. He created and teaches the concepts covered here, including liquidity, fair value gaps, market structure shifts, order blocks, killzones and many more. The credit for these ideas is his: follow him on X (@I_Am_The_ICT) and on YouTube (@InnerCircleTrader).
These pages are FundedEnigma’s summaries of important ICT concepts. Each one is explained on real CME NQ futures charts, with a video and a full written guide. FundedEnigma is not affiliated with or endorsed by ICT.
Watch the ICT Concepts Decoded playlist on YouTube FundedEnigma channel
Concepts
Liquidity
Where stop orders rest above highs and below lows, and how price runs from one pool to the next.
- What is ICT liquidity?
- What are liquidity concepts in trading?
- What is liquidity in trading?
Video 7:33Read the lessonWatch on YouTube
Frequently asked questions
Who created ICT concepts?
ICT concepts were created by Michael J. Huddleston, who trades and teaches as The Inner Circle Trader (ICT). He shares his teaching on his YouTube channel, @InnerCircleTrader, and on X as @I_Am_The_ICT.
Is ICT free?
Michael J. Huddleston has published a large amount of his ICT teaching for free on his YouTube channel. The ICT Concepts Decoded lessons on FundedEnigma are free too, with no sign-up needed.
What markets do ICT concepts work on?
ICT concepts describe how price behaves around liquidity, and traders apply them to liquid markets such as index futures, forex and crypto. Every example in this series uses real CME NQ (Nasdaq-100 E-mini) futures charts. It is education only, not financial advice.
Is FundedEnigma affiliated with ICT?
No. FundedEnigma is not affiliated with or endorsed by ICT or Michael J. Huddleston. These pages are our own summaries of concepts he teaches publicly, and he is credited as their creator.
What is ICT liquidity?
ICT liquidity (also called liquidity concepts, or buyside and sellside liquidity) is the pool of stop orders resting just above old highs and below old lows. Read the full Liquidity lesson.
Education only, not financial advice. The charts in this series are real historical CME NQ futures data. Trading futures involves substantial risk of loss.