SIBI and BISI — Sell-Side and Buy-Side Imbalance in ICT

The first time you hear ICT's recordings, the acronyms SIBI and BISI sound like incantations — and many traders spend years trading Fair Value Gaps without knowing these are exactly the same formations. Yet behind the four letters hides more than naming: a precise description of who created the gap and what was missing inside it. Understanding this pair sorts out the directionality of every gap on your chart once and for all. If the FVG formation is new to you, read the pillar on the Fair Value Gap first — here we focus on the directional layer.

What SIBI and BISI Are

SIBI (Sell-side Imbalance, Buy-side Inefficiency) is a sell-side imbalance — the bearish variety of the FVG. It forms in an impulsive down move driven almost exclusively by sellers. On the chart: a sequence of bearish candles with large bodies and short wicks, with the gap stretching between the low of the first candle and the high of the third.

The name describes two sides of the same phenomenon. "Imbalance on the sell side" — because sellers dominated the move. "Inefficiency on the buy side" — because there were so few buyers that the price range inside the gap was never traded from both sides. The market delivered only selling prices there — and that is precisely the inefficient, one-sided pricing that price will later want to rebalance.

BISI (Buy-side Imbalance, Sell-side Inefficiency) is the mirror image — a buy-side imbalance, the bullish variety of the gap. It forms in an impulsive up move dominated by buyers; the gap stretches between the high of the first candle and the low of the third. Imbalance on the buy side, inefficiency on the sell side.

The simplest mnemonic you'll find: SIBI starts like Sell — you look for shorts. BISI starts like Buy — you look for longs.

Why two names at all, when "bullish FVG" and "bearish FVG" would do? Because ICT's naming forces you to think about mechanics, not candle colors. Saying "SIBI," you're saying: "supply took over the market here and demand didn't exist — if price comes back, unfilled sell orders are waiting for it." That's a completely different quality of chart reading than "a red rectangle."

How to Identify a SIBI and BISI Step by Step

The procedure is identical to the classic FVG — only the direction of measurement differs:

1. Find the impulse leg. Look for a series of candles with large bodies and short wicks, moving decisively in one direction — the trace of displacement, a conviction move. On crypto the cleanest impulses print on breakouts from consolidation and after liquidity is taken from old highs or lows.
2. Isolate the three candles of the formation. Candle 1 before the move, candle 2 with the largest body, candle 3 after the move.
3. Measure the gap wick to wick. - Down move → SIBI: from the low of candle 1 to the high of candle 3. - Up move → BISI: from the high of candle 1 to the low of candle 3. If the wicks of candles 1 and 3 overlap — there is no gap.
4. Define the zone's role. Once formed, a SIBI acts as resistance — price climbing back into the sell-side imbalance zone is usually rejected downward. A BISI acts as support — price dropping back into the buy-side imbalance zone usually bounces.
5. Grade the quality. Not every imbalance is tradable: what matters is the strength of the displacement, the freshness of the gap and its position relative to higher-timeframe structure. We covered the full quality filter in valid vs weak FVG.

If you don't want to measure every impulse leg by hand, our SRL indicator marks SIBI and BISI zones automatically and distinguishes active gaps from filled ones.

How to Trade SIBI and BISI

An imbalance on its own is just an observation. A setup emerges when the gap lands in the right context:

Step 1 — direction of the day. Set your bias on the daily/H4 based on market structure: bearish structure → we trade only SIBIs (shorts), bullish structure → only BISIs (longs). Trading BISIs in a bear market is the most common way traders turn a good tool into a loss machine.

Step 2 — premium/discount zone. Stretch the last significant swing and split it in half. A SIBI has value in premium (the upper half — you sell expensive), a BISI in discount (the lower half — you buy cheap). An imbalance in the wrong half of the range gets passed on.

Step 3 — wait for the retest. You don't chase the impulse leg. The displacement has already happened — your entry is price's return to the gap. On ETH on the M15 the retest usually arrives within a few to a dozen or so candles; no return simply means no trade.

Step 4 — lower-timeframe confirmation. When price reaches the zone, you drop to M5/M3 and wait for a market structure shift (MSS) in the direction of your bias. Without an MSS, an imbalance is sometimes just a rest stop on the way through.

Step 5 — entry, stop, target. - Entry: inside the gap zone, optimally at its midpoint — the Consequent Encroachment level, the most reactive point of any imbalance. - Stop loss: for a SIBI — above the high of candle 1 (the highest candle of the sequence) with a buffer; for a BISI — below the low of candle 1 (the lowest). Never inside the gap: a typical retest can drive deep into the zone before the real move starts. - Target: the nearest liquidity pool in the direction of the trade — old lows below the market for shorts from a SIBI, old highs for longs from a BISI.

Example: BTC in bearish structure on the H4 bounces up into the premium zone. On the M15 a down leg prints with a clean SIBI, price climbs back into the gap after an hour, and the M5 shows an MSS to the downside. Short from the midpoint of the gap, stop above the high of candle 1, target at the liquidity below the last equal low — a textbook sell-side imbalance trade.

SIBI vs BISI — a Quick Cheat Sheet

Both formations are mirror images — the comparison below is worth keeping in your head (or next to your monitor) until the distinction becomes reflex:

One thing worth adding: the classic ICT description speaks of a sequence of "three large candles in one direction," but in practice it's enough that the middle candle carries the displacement and that candles 1 and 3 don't close the gap with their wicks. On crypto you do get textbook sequences of three full bodies — especially during liquidation cascades on BTC — and those are the highest-quality imbalances, because the one-sidedness of the move is then total. The shorter the wicks across the whole sequence, the less fighting between the two sides and the cleaner the imbalance.

It's also worth knowing that the SIBI/BISI pair is the language used to describe the more complex concepts of the FVG family. When you read that "a BISI broke through a SIBI and an overlap formed" — that's a description of a Balanced Price Range zone. When you hear about "a SIBI that failed to hold price" — that's a candidate for an Inversion FVG. Mastering the naming isn't pedantry; it's the prerequisite for understanding the method's higher floors.

Common Mistakes

• Mixing up the directions. SIBI = short, BISI = long. Reversing this pair reverses the direction of your position — a mistake that happens more often than anyone likes to admit. Stick to the S/B mnemonic.
• Trading every imbalance on the chart. Gaps print constantly. The tradable ones sit at higher-timeframe levels, align with the bias and are confirmed by an MSS. The rest is noise.
• SIBIs in a bull market, BISIs in a bear market. An imbalance against HTF structure is a statistical coin flip with worse risk.
• A stop inside the zone. The gap is an area, not a line — price has every right to trade through a large part of it before bouncing. The stop belongs beyond candle 1's extreme.
• Entering without confirmation. Merely touching a SIBI/BISI is not a signal. An MSS on the lower timeframe separates a defended zone from a drive-through zone.
• Ignoring a break. If a candle body closes on the other side of the gap, the imbalance stops working in its original direction — and starts working the other way, as an Inversion FVG.

SIBI and BISI are proof that in the ICT method naming can be a science: four letters describe who controlled the market, what was missing and what price will come back for. The next level of precision is entries from the midpoint of the gap (Consequent Encroachment) and the zones where sell-side and buy-side imbalances overlap — the Balanced Price Range.

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.

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