Venom Model
Also: Venom, ICT Venom Model, Venom execution model
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The Venom Model is a proprietary execution model developed by ICT, described as uniquely his own and named for the metaphor of a venomous predator. ICT states: "think of it as a venomous predator, okay? And when it injects its venom, it starts to break down the tissues and the sinew of its victim. Well, it's very potent." As of the February 2025 disclosure, the Venom Model is only partially described — ICT explicitly states a "complete expose" will be done in the future. The disclosed components are: 1. Entry structure: Uses a Balanced Price Range (BPR) as the entry trigger. The BPR represents back-and-forth price action within a fair value gap range, indicating the gap has been "balanced" — price has consolidated within it, reducing the likelihood it will need to be fully repriced again. 2. Directional bias in disclosure: The 2025 example demonstrates a bullish (long) trade. ICT states he was "only interested in going long" and "trading in the direction of the liquidity I was identifying." The model appears to operate from a strong directional bias established prior to entry. 3. Draw on liquidity: Draws on liquidity used in the 2025 demonstration include NWOG (New Week Opening Gap), NDOG (New Day Opening Gap), and ORG (Opening Range Gap) as targets — consistent with the broader 2025 SMC model. 4. Entry entry logic: The trade is entered from a BISI (Buy Side Imbalance Sell Side Inefficiency) at or near a major low. The BPR within or near the BISI provides the precise entry zone. 5. Partial management: ICT takes multiple partials as price advances, each time at local swing highs or areas of likely resistance (e.g., previous highs, old intraday levels). He explicitly describes this as ensuring he captures value even if the trade reverses before reaching the full target. 6. Overnight trade management: The disclosed example involved entering during Asian session hours, taking partials, then setting a remaining position with a stop and going to sleep — described as a set-and-forget approach for the overnight remainder. The Venom Model is described as being "very, very powerful" and distinct from the 2025 lecture series model of using only first presented FVGs. ICT contrasts the two to illustrate that a single model will not capture every price run, and that he employs additional models beyond the publicly taught one.
Identification6
- DISCLOSURE IS PARTIAL — full rules not yet publicly stated as of February 2025.
- Identify a Balanced Price Range (BPR): a fair value gap where price has traded back and forth within the range, 'balancing' it — back-and-forth in the upper half of a bearish FVG or lower half of a bullish FVG.
- Entry is at or from within the BPR, aligned with a BISI (bullish) or SIBI (bearish) at a significant structural low or high.
- Strong pre-established directional bias required — in the 2025 example, ICT stated explicitly he was only interested in longs.
- Use NWOG, NDOG, or ORG as the draw on liquidity targets.
- Partial management throughout the trade — do not hold all contracts to the final target.
Entry2
- INFERRED: Enter at or within the Balanced Price Range, aligned with a BISI (bullish) or SIBI (bearish).
- INFERRED: Enter in the direction of the pre-established draw on liquidity (NWOG, NDOG, ORG).
Stop2
- INFERRED: Stop below the BISI low (for bullish entries) or above the SIBI high (for bearish entries).
- In the 2025 example, ICT moved the stop to above break-even after the first partial was banked.
Target3
- INFERRED: NWOG, NDOG, or ORG as primary draw on liquidity targets.
- Take partials at each meaningful intraday swing high (bullish) or swing low (bearish) encountered en route to the final target.
- If holding overnight, accept stop-out as acceptable if the trade is already profitable through partials.
Invalidation2
- Model rules not fully disclosed; invalidation conditions are inferred from the partial demonstration only.
- If the BPR is violated on the entry side (price displaces decisively back through it), the trade is compromised.
Inferred Conditions (Unvalidated)
- The Venom Model uses the Balanced Price Range (BPR) as a key structural qualifier — this distinguishes it from entries at a fresh, unvisited FVG.
- ICT's willingness to enter during Asian session hours and hold overnight suggests the Venom Model operates on a longer time horizon than his intraday session models.
- The name 'Venom' implies a slow-acting, thorough mechanism — consistent with the partial-heavy management style and acceptance of overnight exposure.
- ICT's use of the BPR entry (a balanced range) suggests the model is designed to capture runs after price has already consolidated, rather than catching the initial displacement.
ICT Quotes
"think of it as a venomous predator, okay? And when it injects its venom, it starts to break down the tissues and the sinew of its victim. Well, it's very potent, and my Venom model is very, very powerful"
"I'm going to do a complete expose on this model in the future, but for now, just suffice it to say that think of it as a venomous predator"
"focusing on the bias that I told you yesterday. I'm only interested in going long. I'm not interested in going short and trading in the direction of the liquidity I was identifying."
"if it stops me out, so be it. And if it runs up and hits my limit, so be it. I've taken the lines portion of the move inside of that city to the left around 9am so I'm content."
Timeframes
Version History1 version
ICT YT - 2025-02-19 - Inner Musings On Trading One Model and My Venom Model - Example Only.srt
"I'm going to do a complete expose on this model in the future, but for now, just suffice it to say that think of it as a venomous predator, okay? And when it injects its venom, it starts to break down…"
First public mention and partial disclosure of the Venom Model. ICT explicitly states this is not a full teaching — only an illustrative example. Components disclosed: BPR entry structure, BISI at lows, bullish directional bias, draws on NWOG/NDOG/ORG, partial management with overnight hold. Full model rules stated to be forthcoming in a future video.
Notes
The Venom Model is a PARTIALLY DISCLOSED concept as of February 2025. This YAML captures only what ICT has publicly stated. Any conditions marked "INFERRED" are extrapolations from the demonstration and should be treated with lower confidence until the full expose is published. Confidence is rated "medium" (not high) because the model rules are incomplete. The video title "Inner Musings On Trading One Model and My Venom Model - Example Only" is significant — ICT uses this video primarily to address students who criticize the 2025 first-presented-FVG model for not giving a trade every day. He shows the Venom Model trade as an illustration that he has other tools available, while reiterating that focusing on one model per session is the correct student approach. Balanced Price Range (BPR) as the entry mechanism: see balanced-price-range.yaml for the full definition. In the Venom Model context, the BPR is used as an entry trigger rather than an avoidance zone (as it might be in a standard FVG-fill analysis). The phrase "city to the left around 9am" that ICT uses in the video refers to a previous day's 9:00 AM price area that acted as consolidation — this is consistent with his practice of using prior-day kill zone levels as intraday reference points. See also: balanced-price-range.yaml, breakaway-gap.yaml, fair-value-gap.yaml, new-week-opening-gap.yaml, opening-range-gap.yaml
Asymmetry Notes
The disclosed example is bullish (long bias, BISI entry, draw on liquidity above). ICT does not confirm whether the model has a bearish counterpart in the 2025 disclosure. Given the BPR/BISI structure, a bearish variant using SIBI (Sell Side Imbalance Buy Side Inefficiency) is logically implied but not explicitly demonstrated.