ICT Macro Times — The Algorithmic Time Windows (Full ET Schedule)

Imagine the market receiving a short order every few hours: "collect the stops above that high" or "fill that gap below." That's exactly how ICT describes macros — in his view, the price delivery algorithm executes a series of scheduled tasks throughout the day, each a few dozen minutes long. Michael Huddleston defines a macro as "a short set of instructions that creates an event in price delivery." Whether one great algorithm really sits behind it all is debatable. But the statistical regularity is hard to ignore: in the same minutes of the day, the market suddenly accelerates, reaches for liquidity and returns. In this article you get the full macro schedule in New York time (ET) and a template for trading it.

What Are Macro Times

Macro Times are short time windows — most often 20–30 minutes — in which price performs one of two tasks: it reaches for liquidity (sweeps a high or low with stops resting above or below it) or it rebalances an inefficiency, i.e. fills a previously created Fair Value Gap. The concept rests on the "time and price" theory: levels tell you where the market may react, macros tell you when it most likely will.

An important caveat before we go further: a macro is not a strategy in itself. It's a timing layer laid over an existing trade idea. If your setup — a sweep, an order block, an FVG — lines up with the opening of a macro, you get the ignition that can carry the move to its target. If there's no setup, the macro alone guarantees nothing.

ICT introduced macros publicly in 2023, and in his 2024 mentorship refined the general rule: a macro occurs at the turn of every hour — the last 10 minutes of the closing hour and the first 10 minutes of the opening one. On top of that, the last hour of the regular equities session contains as many as four micro-windows, roughly every 15 minutes. In practice, though, traders focus on the handful of main windows you'll find in the table below.

The Macro Schedule (New York Time)

All times are anchored to New York local time — exactly as ICT himself recommends.

Mind the daylight saving trap: the US changes its clocks on the second Sunday of March and the first Sunday of November, while Europe does so on the last Sundays of March and October — so if you trade from outside the US, your local offset to New York shifts by an hour for a few weeks a year. The safest habit is to set your chart to the "New York" timezone and read the table as-is.

The star marks the 9:50–10:10 AM ET macro — the strongest window of the day. The New York Stock Exchange opens at 9:30 AM ET, so by 9:50 order flow is at its peak while the first chaos of the open has already settled. On indices (NQ, ES), gold and BTC this window regularly delivers the cleanest moves of the day: a sweep of a level, an M1 structure shift and fast distribution to the nearest liquidity pool. On top of that, the macro sits in the middle of the New York killzone, so you get a double confluence of time.

Why Would an Algorithm Need Time Windows

However literally you take the "IPDA algorithm" narrative, the mechanics make market sense. Big capital can't enter the market with a single order — it needs counterparties. The largest guaranteed supply of counterparties sits where stop-losses and breakout orders cluster, and participant activity peaks at predictable minutes: the turn of the hour, the NYSE open, the fix, the return from lunch, the session close. So institutions run their execution programs precisely then — and that's why "events in price delivery" cluster in repeatable windows. Macros are nothing more than the map of those windows.

For a retail trader the takeaway is practical: you don't have to believe in the algorithm, you just have to respect the statistics. A move that starts at 9:50 AM ET has a different quality of flow behind it than an identical-looking move at 6:30 AM.

How to Use Macros in Your Trading

The template for trading a macro is mechanical and repeatable:

1. Mark the liquidity before the window. The previous day's and previous session's high/low, equal highs and lows, fresh M15 extremes — everything the algorithm might reach for.
2. Mark the imbalances. Every unfilled FVG on M15 and M5, above and below price. A macro either takes liquidity or fills a gap — you need to know both targets.
3. Set the window's direction. A two-sided rule: if price has already collected buy-side liquidity before the macro, expect a move down toward sell-side; if it has collected sell-side — a move up. You don't need a bias for the whole day, only for these 20 minutes.
4. Wait for the window to open. No positions "in advance." The macro itself is the catalyst.
5. Watch for the impulse and the structure shift. A clean break of the last local high/low on M1–M5 (MSS) confirms the direction.
6. Enter on the retrace. Into the FVG (ideally its midpoint, the so-called mean threshold), an order block or the OTE zone. Stop beyond the extreme of the impulse candle, target at the nearest opposite liquidity pool.
7. Manage fast. The window lasts 20–30 minutes — the move is delivered in bursts. Once the first liquidity is reached, move your stop to break-even.

Let's rehearse it on the 9:50–10:10 AM ET window. Fifteen minutes before the macro you look at BTC on M15: in the first minutes after the NYSE open the market took out the morning high and collected the buy-side liquidity hanging above it — so the directional rule says: in the macro, expect a move down toward sell-side. Below price you see equal lows from the Asian session and an unfilled FVG. At 9:50 you drop to M1: price makes one more shallow push higher, then impulsively breaks the last local low — that's the MSS. You enter short on the retrace into the midpoint of the gap left by the impulse, stop above the high of the impulse candle, target at the equal lows. The whole scenario — from analysis to execution — fits inside the twenty minutes of the window. That is the essence of macros: not more trades, just more concentrated time.

On timeframes: M15 to map liquidity and direction, M5–M1 for the entry. In the 9:50–10:10 AM ET window M1 works best — the move can be too fast for anything higher. Instruments: macros were born on the NQ and ES indices and work best there, but they carry over to EUR/USD, GBP/USD, gold, and to BTC and ETH, which move together with the indices during US hours. On crypto, though, stick to the US and London session windows — overnight macros, outside institutional flow hours, have no statistical backing on BTC and are better skipped than traded out of habit. On TradingView you'll find a ready-made "ICT Macros" indicator (LuxAlgo) — it draws the windows automatically, but only works on M5 and below.

Common Mistakes

• A position before the window opens. The macro's whole edge is that the event is yet to come. Entering earlier is guessing without a catalyst.
• Trading every macro of the day. Eight windows are not eight trades. If there's no readable liquidity target above and below price — you pass.
• Ignoring the calendar. A macroeconomic release inside the window (and the NY AM regularly catches CPI or NFP at 8:30 AM ET) distorts price action. A macro with a red news event inside it is a skip.
• Confusing the window's direction with the day's bias. A macro can play against the daily trend — because its job may be to fill a gap, not to continue the move. You read the direction from the liquidity around price, not from your conviction about the whole day.
• No stop "because it's just a scalp." The windows are short, but the volatility inside them can be brutal. A stop beyond the impulse candle is non-negotiable.
• An outdated clock after the DST change. Twice a year the macros shift relative to your local time. A chart set to New York time ends the issue.

Macros taste best as part of a set: time window + killzone + level. If at 9:50 AM ET price reaches equal highs inside the New York killzone, and sell-side liquidity has already been collected — those aren't three separate signals, they're one very strong one. You'll find the next piece of this puzzle in the article on the Silver Bullet, the one-hour setup window built on the same logic of time and liquidity.

FAQ

Rafał — Krypto Bez Ściemy

Trader and founder of Strefa Tradingu. He’s been breaking crypto down on YouTube for years — no hype, no signals, with a focus on market structure and risk management.

kryptobezsciemy.plInstagramYouTubeKlub Zero