ICT Decoded · High vs Low Resistance Liquidity
What Is High and Low Resistance Liquidity in ICT Trading?
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 31, 2026
ICT concepts were created and are taught by Michael J. Huddleston, The Inner Circle Trader (X · YouTube). This lesson is FundedEnigma’s own summary, not affiliated with or endorsed by ICT.
In short: Low resistance liquidity (a low resistance liquidity run, LRLR) is a pool of stops with a clean path to it: price left the area fast, leaving few swings in the way. High resistance liquidity (HRLR) sits behind a crowded path of earlier highs or lows, each one already defended once, so reaching it is harder.
ICT High vs Low Resistance Liquidity: How to Read the Path to a Pool (Real NQ Data) · 6:05 · published October 31, 2026 · part of the ICT Concepts Decoded playlist
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The full video is embedded above this article: ICT High vs Low Resistance Liquidity: How to Read the Path to a Pool (Real NQ Data). This page is the written version, with every chart walked through step by step. Jump to any part of the video:
Key facts: resistance liquidity at a glance
| Term | What it is | What to look for |
|---|---|---|
| Pool | The nearest untaken named high or low: previous day, Asia, London or previous week | The level price could be drawn to |
| Path | The 5-minute swing highs between price and a pool above (swing lows for a pool below), formed after the pool and untaken | Count them |
| Low resistance | 0-1 swings in the path, after a fast move away from the pool | A clean path |
| High resistance | 3 or more swings in the path | A defended level, not a target |
| Distance | How far the pool is, in average 5-minute candles (ATR 14 on the 5-minute chart) | On our data, it mattered more than the count |
Last verified 2026-10-31. All charts below are real historical CME NQ futures data, shown in New York time.
Here is the idea on one morning. On April 2, 2026, at 10:30 AM, Nasdaq futures sat about three hundred points under the Asia high. Seven minutes later they were through it: one 5-minute candle covered about two hundred and fifty points. On another morning, price sat less than two hundred points under its London high and did not get there that day. What stood in the way looked very different.
What is low resistance liquidity?
Low resistance liquidity is a pool with a clean path to it. The terms come from ICT (Michael J. Huddleston). Liquidity is the resting orders above old highs and below old lows, and the draw on liquidity is the pool price is heading for. When price left that area fast, there is little in the way when it comes back.
What is high resistance liquidity?
High resistance liquidity is a pool behind a crowded path. To get there, price has to work back through many earlier highs (for a pool above) or lows (for a pool below).
Why does the path to a pool matter?
Because every swing in the path is a level that was defended once. When price falls fast, in a few big candles, it leaves no swing highs behind: no level got defended on the way down. When price grinds lower in steps, every lower high is a place where sellers already pushed it back, and coming back up, price meets those levels again. Those highs hold buy stops too, so price can run some of them (as in inducement), but the more of them there are, the harder the trip.
How do you identify high and low resistance liquidity?
In this lesson we read the path in three steps:
- Pick the pool: the nearest untaken named high or low, such as the previous day's high or the Asia or London high.
- Count the 5-minute swing highs between price and that pool, with two candles on each side, formed after the pool and still untaken. For a pool below, count the swing lows.
- Zero or one swing, after a fast move away from the pool, is low resistance: a clean path.
- Three or more is high resistance: a defended level. Two sits in between.
- Measure the distance in average 5-minute candles (the 14-bar average true range). As the data below shows, distance mattered more than the count.
What do high and low resistance liquidity look like on real charts?
A pool left behind by a fast drop, and a pool left behind by a slow staircase.
Example 1: low resistance, the Asia high, April 2, 2026
- On the evening of April 1, at 8:59 PM, Nasdaq sets the Asia high at 24,245.75.
- From 9:00 to 9:25 PM, price drops from 24,240.00 to 23,962.00: 278 points, with no 5-minute swing high left behind.
- The next morning, the one overnight swing high in the path, at 23,967.00, is taken at 10:16 AM. By 10:30, the path to the Asia high is clean: zero swings.
- At 10:35 price runs. The Asia high is taken at 10:37, and price reaches 24,266.75.
Example 2: high resistance, the London high, August 10, 2026
- At 3:45 AM, Nasdaq sets the London high at 29,984.00.
- It then grinds lower for six hours, in steps: seven lower highs from 5:10 to 9:30, each one still untaken.
- At 10:00, price is at 29,806.75, about 177 points under the London high, behind seven swing highs.
- Price does rally. By 10:10 it runs the two nearest highs, and at 10:15 it tops at 29,900.00, nineteen and three quarter points under the next one.
- It does not reach the London high that day, and at 3:59 PM it trades down to 29,722.50.
Does low resistance liquidity get reached more often?
At first sight yes, but mostly because it is closer. We read 852 pools at 10:00 AM, the nearest untaken one above and below price, from June 2024 to September 2026, skipping contract rolls.
- Clean paths were reached by 4:00 PM about six times in ten; pools behind three or more swings, under one time in four.
- The crowded paths were usually farther away: a median of six and a half average 5-minute candles, against about two for the clean ones.
- At the same distance, both were reached about as often: about half the time two to four candles away, and the same held closer in and farther out. So the difference was distance, not the count.
- Count the swings, but measure the distance first. A crowded path usually means a defended pool that is far away. Neither one says the pool will be reached.
How do you use high and low resistance liquidity in your own charting?
Use it to describe how hard the path to a pool is, with distance first.
- Read the path, not just the pool. A clean path and a crowded one can sit the same distance away.
- Expect some of the path to be run. Swing highs in the way hold stops too.
- Measure distance in average candles. On our data it explained nearly all of the difference.
- Do not treat it as a signal. This page describes how price behaved, not a trade.
More concepts in the series are on the ICT Concepts Decoded hub. If you trade futures with a prop firm, you can look up a firm's rules on the challenges page or set two firms side by side on the compare page.
Frequently asked questions
What do LRLR and HRLR stand for?
LRLR is a low resistance liquidity run and HRLR is a high resistance liquidity run: a run to a pool through a clean path, or through a crowded one.
Are the swings in the path internal range liquidity?
Not in the sense our internal and external liquidity lesson uses, where internal liquidity is the fair value gap inside the leg. Here the swings are simply the earlier highs or lows price would have to trade back through.
Does a clean path mean price will reach the pool?
No. On our data, clean paths were reached about as often as crowded ones at the same distance. A clean path describes the trip; it does not promise it.
Which timeframe should I count swings on?
This page counts 5-minute swings with two candles on each side. A 1-minute chart shows more small swings, so keep one timeframe for the count.
Is high resistance liquidity a trade signal?
No. It describes the path between price and a pool, not an entry. This page does not give trade signals.
Sources
- Concept: high and low resistance liquidity runs as taught by ICT (The Inner Circle Trader, Michael J. Huddleston), who originated them. The explanation, examples and charts on this page are our own.
- Data: every chart and the 852-pool count are real historical CME Nasdaq-100 E-mini (NQ) futures data, shown in New York time.
- Video: ICT High vs Low Resistance Liquidity: How to Read the Path to a Pool (Real NQ Data), FundedEnigma.
Last verified: 2026-10-31. Written by Steve H.
Disclaimer: This page is for education only and is not financial advice. Trading futures involves substantial risk of loss. Past price behaviour does not guarantee future results.
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