Low Resistance Liquidity Run
Also: LRLR, low resistance run, liquidity run
A price move that travels from one PD array to an opposing PD array with minimal friction (low resistance), facilitated by the absence of significant opposing institutional reference points between the two levels. In consolidating markets, low resistance liquidity runs travel from one quadrant's discount PD array to an opposing quadrant's premium PD array (or vice versa) within the 60-day IPDA data range framework. In trending markets, the same principle applies intra-week: price moves from a discount PD array to a premium PD array within the weekly range, ideally between Monday and Friday. The "low resistance" quality is determined by the absence of competing PD arrays between entry and target, or by those intermediate arrays being already exhausted (previously traded to and reacted). The concept provides a mechanism for quantifying how much "room" a trade has before encountering institutional opposition.
Identification6
- In consolidation: define the 60-day range by highest and lowest body closes/opens (not wicks). Bisect to find equilibrium. Divide each half into quadrants (each quadrant is further bisected).
- Discount PD array is identified in the lower half or lower quadrant of the consolidation range.
- Premium PD array is identified in the upper half or upper quadrant of the consolidation range.
- Between the entry PD array and the target PD array, few or no fresh (unvisited) opposing PD arrays exist — or those that exist are from a lesser timeframe and unlikely to provide strong resistance.
- The PD array must be fresh (not previously traded to and reacted to) — exhausted arrays do not generate new liquidity runs.
- In trending markets: same logic applied intra-week. Confirm trend direction via higher timeframe; identify the current week's low PD array (for bullish); the premium target PD array is 1–3 quadrant levels above.
Entry3
- Enter at the discount PD array (for long runs) or premium PD array (for short runs).
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Stop2
- Below the discount PD array entry (for longs); above the premium PD array entry (for shorts).
- The absence of opposing arrays between entry and target means less likely to be stopped prematurely.
Target4
- In consolidation: first profit at 4-hour or 1-hour premium PD array; final target at the opposing major quadrant level.
- In trending: target the next logical premium PD array from the monthly/weekly/daily hierarchy.
- Price tends to move from quadrant boundary to quadrant boundary — these function as algorithmic mile markers.
- Mid-range entries (near consolidation equilibrium) are prone to chop — avoid trading from this zone unless bias and PD arrays are clear.
Invalidation3
- An unmitigated opposing PD array of equal or higher timeframe exists between entry and target — the run has resistance and is not a low-resistance scenario.
- Price fails to move through the first intermediate level, signaling the run has stalled.
- PD array has already been traded to in the current IPDA period — it is exhausted; seek a new, fresh array.
Inferred Conditions (Unvalidated)
- The consolidation range should be built using candlestick bodies (open/close), not wicks — this more accurately represents institutional price delivery ranges.
- The hierarchical quadrant decomposition (total range → upper/lower halves → upper/lower quadrants of each half) mirrors how the algorithm subdivides price into actionable premium/discount segments.
- Middle-of-range trades (near equilibrium) produce the most false signals because both premium and discount arrays are equidistant and the algorithm has not yet committed to a direction.
- In the highest quadrant of the overall consolidation, bearish PD arrays have dramatically higher impact — short trades from that region are the highest probability shorts.
- In the lowest quadrant, bullish PD arrays have dramatically higher impact — long trades from that region are the highest probability longs.
- Once the algorithmic move from one PD array to the next is complete, the prior array is considered exhausted; the algorithm will seek the next fresh array.
ICT Quotes
"You're looking for low resistance liquidity runs from one PD array to another from a discount to a premium. But we're coupling it with looking back over the last three months because one shot one kill, uses and excels inside the last three months of trading."
"The lower the week. In bullish conditions and training environments we look for the Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday low to form... Notice the low forms off of a logical PDA array in a discount fashion trades down to a fair value gap that's seen on the daily chart."
"Each week that the market, we trade is going to seek to trade from one PD array to another, it will trade from one quadrant to another with the least resistance, it can move from premium to discount or discount to premium market valuation."
"If it breaks through a level, okay, and it trades right through it, you know that it's going to most likely reach for the next level up. Very rarely do you see any midway points between the grades that have already given you here."
Timeframes
Version History7 versions
69-ICT Mentorship Core Content - Month 7 - Short Term Trading Low Resistance Liquidity Runs Part 1.srt
"Welcome to Lesson five folks, short term trading, this teaching is gonna be specifically talking about low resistance liquidity runs in consolidations."
First explicit definition in March 2017 content (Month 7, Lessons 5 and 6). Part 1 covers consolidating markets; Part 2 covers trending environments.
ICT YT - 2025-02-08 - 2025 Lecture Series - Algorithmic Price Delivery Continuum.srt
"every quarter so 10 to 1015 there's a fair value gap forming... there's four potential fair value gaps that form per hour. High resistance means no FVGs forming on 15min or 5min. Sit still. Low resist…"
2025 INTRADAY FILTER — HIGH vs LOW RESISTANCE LIQUIDITY RUN CONDITIONS: ICT formalizes an intraday filter using fair value gap formation on the 15-minute and 5-minute charts as the real-time indicator of resistance conditions: LOW RESISTANCE (trade it): FVGs are forming on the 15-minute and/or 5-minute chart every 15 minutes (consistent with the "bus schedule" metaphor — a new FVG every quarter hour). This indicates the algorithm is actively delivering price directionally. HIGH RESISTANCE (sit still): No FVGs forming on the 15-minute or 5-minute chart. Price is chopping in a range without creating imbalances. Do not trade. The 2025 context: "this is high resistance liquidity run conditions. I mean, it's very, very, very challenging." This is a significant operational refinement from the original 2017 definition, which focused on IPDA quadrant analysis for multi-day setups. The 2025 version applies the LRLR/HRLR classification in real time at the intraday timeframe level using FVG formation rate as the diagnostic tool.
ICT YT - 2025-02-11 - 2025 Lecture Series - Trading In High Resistance Liquidity Run Conditions With My Lunch Macro.srt
"this is high resistance liquidity run conditions. I mean, it's very, very, very challenging, even for me."
HRLR day demonstration: ICT shows a live example of trading in high resistance conditions (Fed Chair testimony week, tight range, repeated stop-outs). Confirms that even with correct bias and setups, high resistance conditions make execution exceptionally difficult. Key HRLR behavioral markers from this session: price stays in tight range, repeatedly comes back to stop out positions, no sustained directional expansion. ICT's response to HRLR: reduce size, take more partials earlier, aggressively move stop to cover costs after the first partial.
20 - ICT 2026 Smart Money Concepts Lecture ⧹ January 29, 2026.en.srt
"I don't like that. I like to have low resistance liquidity runs where it leaves things. There here there's your liquidity. Where it leaves pools of inefficiency here. That's the type of price action I…"
POROUS WAKE DEFINITION: ICT describes LRLR conditions as price 'leaving a porous wake behind it' — meaning leaving pools of inefficiency (FVGs, volume imbalances) as it moves. When price does NOT leave these porous inefficiencies, it is 'fuzzy' — sharing the same space with previous ranges, constantly going back and forth over previous candles. Fuzzy price action is NOT algorithmic — it is 'intervention' where they are 'constantly going after orders because they're greedy.' ICT explicitly states he does not 'bet his heaviest hand' in non-porous (high resistance) conditions.
15 - ICT 2026 Smart Money Concepts Lecture ⧹ February 11, 2026.en.srt
"So, this is high resistance liquidity run conditions. Can it go to targets as problematic for me. Even though I know I can trade in high resistance liquidity run conditions because I have a little bit"
Live session showing HRLR conditions with price staying in tight range. ICT asks students to identify whether the 1-minute chart shows high or low resistance conditions. Confirms HRLR visual is a 'barcode' or 'UPC symbol' pattern — tight overlapping candles with no clean inefficiencies. Even ICT finds these 'problematic' and reduces his engagement. This predates the more formal Feb 23 and Feb 28 definitions.
13 - ICT 2026 Smart Money Concepts Lecture ⧹ February 23, 2026.en.srt
"we're in high resistance liquidity run conditions. High liquidity run conditions are when the market stays many times in the same previous candles range."
Defines HRLR as market staying inside previous candle's range repeatedly. Introduces body-based inside day as HRLR indicator: today's candle body inside previous day's range counts as inside day even if wicks extend beyond. Inside days building compression signal impending expansion/release. Close below consequent encroachment of a discount wick on a closing basis signals transition to LRLR conditions.
10 - ICT 2026 Smart Money Concepts Lecture ⧹ February 28, 2026.en.srt
"that's what high resistance means. It's resisting your ability to find efficient low-risk trades. That's the definition for it."
Most explicit definition to date. HRLR formally defined as: conditions that resist your ability to find efficient low-risk trades. Every candlestick shares the previous range of the candle before it — a big block of overlapping ranges. LRLR by contrast: inefficiencies form (gaps, FVGs, volume imbalances), price retraces to them, then expands again. LRLR produces order blocks, changes in state of delivery, and gaps between candles. The word 'resistance' does NOT imply support/resistance — it means resisting the efficiency of trading. Visual: HRLR = shaded gray block of overlapping candles; LRLR = stair-step pattern with gaps and retracements.
Notes
This concept is explicitly divided into two sub-contexts by ICT: 1. Low Resistance Liquidity Runs in Consolidation (file 69) — framework uses quadrant decomposition of the 60-day body-based consolidation range. 2. Low Resistance Liquidity Runs in Trending Conditions (file 70) — applies the same quadrant logic to a trending 4-hour chart, with weekly dividers as the temporal frame. The quadrant decomposition method (bisect total range → bisect each half → bisect each quarter) is a visual framework; the resulting levels function like proprietary "pivot" references without the self-fulfilling prophecy nature of classical floor-trader pivot calculations. 2025 INTRADAY HRLR/LRLR DIAGNOSTIC (2025): The 2025 lecture series introduces a real-time intraday diagnostic for identifying resistance conditions. The diagnostic is FVG formation rate on the 15-minute and 5-minute charts: - FVGs forming consistently (one per 15-minute quarter) = Low Resistance = trade - No FVGs forming = High Resistance = sit still, reduce size, or skip session This is an intraday tool, not a multi-day/multi-week assessment. The 2017 definition's quadrant-based LRLR analysis operates on daily/weekly/monthly timeframes; the 2025 filter operates on 5-minute/15-minute timeframes within a single session. HRLR conditions are common during: tight-range days, Fed Chair testimony weeks, days preceding major news events (CPI, NFP, FOMC), and days following large directional expansions where the algorithm consolidates. See also: ipda-data-range, one-shot-one-kill, fair-value-gap, order-block, liquidity-pool, price-delivery-continuum.yaml
Asymmetry Notes
Symmetrical — applies to both upward (discount to premium) and downward (premium to discount) moves.