ICT Kill Zones: London, New York and Asian Session Times

Price does not move with equal purpose all day. Long stretches are quiet and choppy, and then, often within an hour or two, the market makes the move that defines the session. In the ICT framework, the windows where those moves tend to start are called kill zones. They are a timing filter: a way to decide when to pay close attention and when to step away.

What it is

A kill zone is a fixed time window, measured in New York local time (ET), linked to the open of a major trading center. ICT traders use these windows because session opens bring a wave of new orders, and that flow is what pushes price through obvious liquidity pools and into the day's real move.

The four windows most often used are:

You will see slightly different windows from different educators. Some start London at 01:00 or end New York at 11:00, and some add a New York PM window in the afternoon. The exact minutes matter less than staying consistent with the version you choose and testing it.

Why activity clusters in these windows

There is nothing magical about a clock. The clustering has practical causes:

• New participants arrive. When London desks open, a large share of global forex volume comes online at once. The same happens when New York opens.
• Scheduled news. Many major US releases, such as employment and inflation data, come out at 08:30 ET, inside the New York AM window.
• Overlap. From about 08:00 to 11:00 ET, London and New York are both active, which adds depth and volatility.
• Resting orders. The Asian session often leaves a tight range. Stops and pending orders build up just beyond it, and the London open is the first time enough volume arrives to reach them.

ICT traders read this as liquidity being targeted. A more neutral reading is that order flow concentrates at opens and news times, so the large moves concentrate there too. Either way, the practical lesson is the same.

How to identify it

1. Set your chart to New York time, or add an indicator that draws session boxes in ET.
2. Box the Asian range from 20:00 to 00:00 ET and mark its high and low.
3. Shade 02:00–05:00 ET (London) and 07:00–10:00 ET (New York AM).
4. Optionally shade 10:00–12:00 ET for the London close.
5. Before each window, note the nearest liquidity pools: Asian high and low, previous day high and low, and any equal highs or lows.
6. Check the Economic Calendar for releases scheduled inside the window.

Daylight saving: a note for non-US readers

Kill zones are anchored to New York clocks, and New York switches between Eastern Standard Time (UTC-5) and Eastern Daylight Time (UTC-4). If your country does not change its clocks on the same dates, or at all, the windows move in your local time.

India Standard Time (UTC+5:30) is a good example because India does not use daylight saving:

The UK and US also change their clocks on different dates in spring and autumn, so for a few weeks each year the London open sits an hour away from its usual place relative to New York. The Forex Sessions clock and Forex Market Hours tool handle these shifts for you.

Worked example: EUR/USD through the London kill zone

All prices are illustrative.

• The Asian range (20:00–00:00 ET) forms between 1.0840 and 1.0862, a 22-pip range.
• Your higher-timeframe view is bullish, with the previous day high at 1.0895 as the draw on liquidity.
• At 02:40 ET, inside the London kill zone, price drops to 1.0834, six pips below the Asian low, taking the sell-side liquidity there.
• Price then displaces higher and breaks the 1.0856 short-term high, leaving a small fair value gap between 1.0845 and 1.0850.
• A trader waiting for this pattern might look for a long on a retrace into the gap, with a stop below 1.0834. From an entry at 1.0848, that is a 14-pip risk with a stop at 1.0834.
• By 04:30 ET price reaches 1.0885, and the New York AM kill zone later trades up to the 1.0895 target.

The window did not decide the direction. Bias did. The kill zone simply narrowed the hours in which the trader expected the sweep and the reaction, which reduces time spent watching noise.

How traders use it

• As a filter. Many ICT traders only take new setups inside one or two kill zones and ignore signals elsewhere.
• For framing. The Asian range becomes the reference that London is expected to raid. See Opening Prices and the Asian Range.
• For specific models. The Silver Bullet and Judas swing are both defined around these windows.
• For lifestyle. Choosing one window you can trade alert is often better than chasing all four.

Wider spreads and fast moves around news can push fills away from planned levels, so size positions with the Position Size Calculator and keep stops in place.

Common mistakes

• Treating the window as a signal. Price moving inside a kill zone is not a reason to trade on its own.
• Using the wrong clock. Forgetting the US daylight saving change shifts every window by an hour.
• Trading every window. Fatigue leads to forced trades in the London close and late session.
• Ignoring news. A release at 08:30 ET can reverse a London move within seconds.
• Expecting precision to the minute. Moves often start a little before or after the box.

Summary

ICT kill zones are New York-time windows, typically Asian (20:00–00:00 ET), London (02:00–05:00 ET), New York AM (07:00–10:00 ET) and London close (10:00–12:00 ET), where order flow and purposeful price movement tend to cluster. They help you decide when to watch, while bias and structure decide what to look for. Convert the windows carefully for your own time zone and daylight saving rules, and treat them as a framework to test rather than a promise of movement.