ICT Storytellers Series
Also: storytellers, storytellers methodology, journaling narrative method, storytelling review
The Storytellers Series is a journaling and market-review methodology introduced by ICT in June 2025 as a dedicated YouTube series. The core practice is to review price action in hindsight — after the session — and construct a narrative that explains who was trapped, who profited, where the inefficiencies were used, and how the market delivered relative to the higher time frame context. Purpose: - Build the skill of "prognostication" — the ability to anticipate price delivery in advance by developing pattern recognition from repeated hindsight review. - Train the student to think in terms of institutional narrative (who got trapped, where were stops, what inefficiencies were targeted) rather than in terms of retail indicators. - Develop a personal "storytelling" voice — the ability to describe price action as if you knew it was going to happen, even in journal entries made after the fact. Over time, this builds genuine foresight. The 15-Minute FVG Pair Technique (dynamic canvas): - Identify the two most recent 15-minute fair value gaps on the chart. - These two FVGs serve as the "dynamic canvas" — a range of key levels (high, CE, low of each FVG = 6 total levels) within which to read institutional order flow. - As new 15-minute FVGs form, the pair is updated: drop the oldest, add the newest. - The pair provides context for reading who is long, who is short, and where stops are clustered. - Also applicable: look for turtle soup setups, inversion FVGs, and pyramiding opportunities within the context of the two FVGs. Journaling mechanics: - Write annotations on the chart as if you already knew the outcome — describe the setup, the trap, the delivery, in past-tense narrative form. - Add commentary explaining the ICT concepts at work (which PD array was used, which macro window, which liquidity pool was targeted). - Compare your journal entries to ICT's own storytellers reviews to identify gaps in your reading of the market. - Review the same session multiple times over days/weeks to deepen pattern retention. NFP week interaction: - Monday of NFP week is highlighted as a particularly good trading day for the Storytellers approach — clean setups tend to form. - Wednesday and Thursday of NFP week are discouraged: time distortion, range-bound action, and NFP anticipation make clean narrative-building difficult. - The daily SIBI often acts as the consolidation anchor during NFP week, with its high/CE/low as the key levels.
Identification6
- After the trading session closes, open the 15-minute chart.
- Identify the two most recent 15-minute FVGs. Mark high, CE (consequent encroachment/midpoint), and low for each — 6 levels total.
- Review the full session within the context of these two FVGs as the narrative canvas.
- Ask: who was trapped at what levels? Where were buy-side and sell-side stops? Which PD arrays were targeted? Which macros coincided with key moves?
- Write annotations in narrative form — 'at 10am, the market ran the relative equal highs above the 15m FVG high, trapping breakout buyers, then returned into the FVG CE for distribution...'
- When a new 15-minute FVG forms that supersedes one of the pair, update the canvas: drop the oldest FVG, add the new one.
Entry1
- Not an entry methodology. The storytellers review informs future bias and pattern recognition but does not produce trade signals directly.
Stop1
- Not applicable.
Target1
- Not applicable. The outcome of the storytellers practice is improved narrative skill and market reading ability, not specific trade targets.
Invalidation2
- Not applicable as a trade entry concept — Storytellers is a review/journaling methodology, not an entry model.
- The 15-minute FVG pair technique becomes less useful when price has moved dramatically outside both FVGs and new ones have not yet formed on the session.
Inferred Conditions (Unvalidated)
- The 15-minute FVG pair as 'dynamic canvas' is a 2025 refinement of ICT's existing FVG framework — specifically selecting a manageable two-FVG window rather than trying to track all FVGs.
- The journaling-as-if-you-knew approach forces the brain to recognize patterns rather than rationalize random outcomes — this is the skill-building mechanism.
- Reviewing NFP week structure (especially Monday vs. Wednesday/Thursday contrast) through the storytellers lens trains students to recognize market regime changes and their effect on setup quality.
ICT Quotes
"when you're recording in your journal, you want to, kind of, like, flesh out a narrative."
"it's one thing for me to talk about what price has done and give you an understanding about how narrative played a part in it, how I look at how framing a setup, looking for the opportunities, the areas in which the setups might form, how the bias, how the price should deliver"
"explain to yourself in commentary over top the chart with annotations, as if you knew it was going to happen. And over time, because you're seeing these things repeat. You'll see that they constantly repeat these same little signatures"
Timeframes
Version History2 versions
ICT YT - 2025-06-03 - 2025 Storytellers Series - NQ Review 06-02-2025.srt
"when you're recording in your journal, you want to, kind of, like, flesh out a narrative."
First episode of the Storytellers Series. Introduces the journaling-in-narrative methodology and the two-FVG dynamic canvas (15-minute FVG pair) as the review framework. Covers turtle soup, pyramiding, and time distortion within the context of NFP week.
ICT YT - 2025-06-22 - 2025 Storytellers Series - Daily High To Low 06-21-2025.srt
"explain to yourself in commentary over top the chart with annotations, as if you knew it was going to happen. And over time, because you're seeing these things repeat. You'll see that they constantly …"
Episode three. Reinforces the narrative annotation method. Introduces the idea of calling the daily high and low in advance (prognostication) as the advanced expression of the storytellers practice. Demonstrates using the one-hour BISI and daily SIBI structure as the session canvas for Friday June 20, 2025.
Notes
The Storytellers Series launched June 2025 as a dedicated YouTube playlist within the 2025 Lecture Series ecosystem. It is distinct from the main lecture series in that the sessions are shorter (typically 5-20 minutes) and review-focused rather than didactic. The daily high-to-low framing in the June 22 episode demonstrates an advanced expression: ICT called the high and the low for June 20, 2025 in a pre-market X post at 4:50am ET, and then reviewed the delivery in the Storytellers episode. This is presented as the aspirational outcome of the storytellers practice — prognostication. The 15-minute FVG pair technique (two most recent 15-minute FVGs as dynamic canvas) is a 2025 addition specific to the Storytellers methodology, not previously named as a standalone tool in prior ICT content. Related: pseudo-memory-journaling.yaml (if exists), fair-value-gap.yaml, sibi-bisi.yaml, time-macros.yaml, nfp-week-rules.yaml (if exists)
Asymmetry Notes
Not applicable — this is a pedagogical methodology, not a directional trade setup. The journaling and narrative-building approach applies equally to bullish and bearish sessions and both long and short trade analysis.