Previous Day and Week Highs and Lows (PDH, PDL, PWH, PWL) in ICT

Ask a room of traders where yesterday's high and low were, and most will know without looking. That shared awareness is exactly why ICT treats previous period highs and lows as liquidity. Orders cluster around them because so many people watch them. This lesson shows how to mark them consistently and how traders use them as targets and sweep levels.

If you are new to the idea of resting orders above highs and below lows, read Buy-Side and Sell-Side Liquidity first.

What it is

The core levels are:

Above PDH, PWH and PMH, the framework expects buy stops from short sellers and breakout buyers. Below PDL, PWL and PML, it expects sell stops. Higher-period levels generally carry more weight: a previous week low usually outranks yesterday's low.

Which day are you measuring?

This choice changes the numbers, so make it deliberately.

• 17:00 ET forex day. The spot forex day is conventionally counted from 17:00 ET to 17:00 ET, the New York close. Many brokers set server time so that daily candles align with it.
• Midnight ET day. Many ICT traders anchor the day at 00:00 ET, which links naturally to the midnight opening price covered in Opening Prices and the Asian Range.
• Exchange session. For US index futures, the trading day runs from 18:00 ET to 17:00 ET the next day, and many futures traders use that.

The difference comes from price traded between the evening hours and midnight. Under the forex day it belongs to the next day; under the midnight day it belongs to the previous one. Neither is correct by default. Pick one per instrument, say which you use, and keep it.

Weeks follow the same logic. In forex the week usually runs from the Sunday 17:00 ET open to the Friday 17:00 ET close.

How to identify it

1. Choose your day definition for the instrument and note it in your trading plan.
2. Mark PDH and PDL from that day's full range, wicks included.
3. Mark PWH and PWL, and the previous month's high and low, on the daily chart.
4. Note which levels are untouched in the current period. Untaken levels are the live liquidity.
5. Check for overlap with equal highs or lows, which make the pool denser.
6. Compare with your bias. Levels in the expected direction are targets; levels against it are possible sweep points.
7. Watch the close when price reaches a level: back inside suggests a sweep, beyond suggests acceptance.

Worked example: PDL sweep on GBP/USD

Prices are illustrative. First, the same Tuesday measured two ways:

The 1.2701 low printed at 19:30 ET on Monday evening. Under the forex day it counts as Tuesday; under the midnight day it counts as Monday, so the midnight-based Tuesday low is 1.2706. This trader uses the forex day: PDH 1.2758, PDL 1.2701. The previous week high (PWH) is 1.2795 and the previous week low is 1.2640.

On Wednesday, the trader's daily bias is bullish, with PDH and then PWH as the expected draws.

• Sweep. At 03:10 ET, in the London session, price drops to 1.2694, 7 pips below PDL. The 15-minute candle closes at 1.2708, back above PDL. (It also traded through the midnight-based low at 1.2706, so the sweep is visible under either definition.)
• Shift. The next candles close above a short-term swing high at 1.2725, leaving a bullish fair value gap between 1.2709 and 1.2716.
• Entry. Buy limit at 1.2712.
• Stop. 1.2688, 6 pips below the sweep low. Risk = 1.2712 − 1.2688 = 24 pips.
• First target. PDH at 1.2758, 46 pips away, about 1:1.9.
• Final target. PWH at 1.2795, 83 pips away, about 1:3.5.

On a $5,000 account risking 1% ($50), with roughly $10 per pip per standard lot, size = $50 ÷ (24 × $10) ≈ 0.21 lots. The Position Size Calculator confirms the figure for your account currency. A common plan is to take partial profit at PDH and move the stop to breakeven. If a 15-minute candle closes below 1.2694, the sweep idea has failed.

How traders use it

• Daily targets. PDH or PDL in the direction of bias is the most common intraday objective.
• Sweep reversals. A run beyond PDH or PDL that closes back inside, followed by a structure shift, is a frequent setup, especially in the London (02:00–05:00 ET) and New York AM (07:00–10:00 ET) windows. See Liquidity Sweeps and Stop Hunts.
• Acceptance signals. A daily close above PDH suggests acceptance higher, with PWH as the next draw.
• Weekly framing. Whether the week takes PWH or PWL first helps frame multi-day bias.

Use the Forex Market Hours tool to check session times in your own time zone. Trading carries substantial risk, and a sweep can turn into a genuine breakout.

Common mistakes

• Mixing day definitions. Using midnight one day and 17:00 ET the next produces inconsistent levels and misleading backtests.
• Using closes instead of extremes. PDH and PDL are the wick high and low of the period.
• Fading every touch. A level is a target or a sweep point, not an automatic reversal.
• Ignoring higher periods. Trading toward PDH while a PWH sits just above it misses the bigger draw.
• Stops just beyond the level. That is where the framework expects price to reach. Place stops beyond the sweep instead.

Summary

Previous day, week and month highs and lows are some of the most widely watched liquidity levels. Choose and record your day definition, because midnight ET, the 17:00 ET forex day and the futures session can produce different levels. Use levels in the direction of bias as targets, treat sweeps that close back inside as possible reversal triggers, and read closes beyond a level as acceptance. Plan the stop beyond the sweep and size the trade from that distance.