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ICT Liquidity Void: What It Is and How Price Fills the Gap

A Liquidity Void is one of the most striking features of institutional price delivery — price moves through a range so rapidly that the area is almost completely empty of transactions. Unlike a Fair Value Gap, which is a specific three-candle structure, a Liquidity Void spans a much larger price range and is almost always filled completely before the next major move. Understanding it changes how you read fast-moving markets.
The Inner Circle Traders
Updated July 2026
8 min read
Cluster: Liquidity
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Cluster 03: Liquidity
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Key Takeaways
  • A Liquidity Void is a price range where the market moved so rapidly that very few orders were transacted — creating an area of extreme inefficiency that price tends to return and fill completely
  • A Liquidity Void is distinguished from a Fair Value Gap by its scale: a Void spans multiple candles and often an entire session, while an FVG is a three-candle structure
  • Liquidity Voids typically form during news events, session opens, or major institutional delivery phases — any time price moves very fast in one direction
  • Price almost always returns to fill a Liquidity Void — often doing so at the next available session before continuing in the original direction
  • Trading inside a Liquidity Void is low-probability — entries should be taken at the boundary of the void, not at levels within it, because there is no transactional history to support a reversal mid-void

What is an ICT Liquidity Void?

A Liquidity Void is a price range through which the market moved so rapidly that very few orders were transacted at any level within it. The area is functionally empty of meaningful transactional history — it is a gap in the market’s price record in the sense that almost no trades occurred between the void’s low and high.
Voids form during periods of maximum institutional participation or sudden order flow imbalances: at the open of major sessions, during high-impact news events (NFP, FOMC), or during the delivery phase of a major institutional order. When institutions need to move price quickly — either to reach a liquidity pool or to distribute a position — price can move through a range of 50–200 pips in a matter of minutes, leaving the void behind.
Why voids fill

Price fills Liquidity Voids because the market is inefficient — buyers and sellers who missed the initial move need to be serviced at those price levels. The mechanical process of market making requires that all price levels receive proper two-sided participation. When they do not (during the initial void formation), price returns to provide that opportunity before continuing.

How Liquidity Voids Form and Fill

ICT Liquidity Void: Formation and FillVoid lowVoid highVOIDVoid fills — price returnsPrice delivers fast through void → returns to fill → continues original direction
The formation sequence is always the same: price is moving in a direction, then suddenly accelerates — a single large candle or a series of candles with very small or no wicks covering significant price range. This fast move creates the void. The area between the start and end of the fast move is the Liquidity Void.
After the fast move completes and price eventually retraces, it passes back through the Liquidity Void and fills it — typically completely. This means price returns to the level where the void began. Once the void is filled, price either reverses at that boundary (if the void boundary coincides with a PD array) or consolidates before continuing in the original direction.
The fill of a Liquidity Void is not a trading signal by itself — it is a structural event. The trade comes from the PD array at the void boundary, not from the void itself.

Liquidity Void vs Fair Value Gap: The Key Difference

Liquidity Void vs Fair Value GapLiquidity VoidFair Value GapTopBotVOIDSpans many candlesFVG3 candles, specific
Both Liquidity Voids and Fair Value Gaps (FVGs) represent price inefficiencies, but they are structurally different and require different approaches.
A Fair Value Gap is a specific three-candle structure: the middle candle’s body creates a gap between the first candle’s high and the third candle’s low (bearish FVG) or the first candle’s low and the third candle’s high (bullish FVG). It spans exactly three candles and has defined boundaries (the FVG top and FVG bottom).
A Liquidity Void is much larger — it spans multiple candles, often an entire price range of hundreds of pips, and represents a sustained period of one-sided delivery with minimal opposing orders. It does not have the three-candle precision of an FVG; instead, it has a clearly visible “empty zone” on the chart where price moved without consolidation.
In practice: FVGs are entry zones — you enter at the FVG and target the next liquidity pool. Liquidity Voids are structural events — you note them, expect them to fill, and look for entry at the PD array at the void boundary, not within the void itself.

How ICT Traders Use Liquidity Voids

The primary use of a Liquidity Void is as a structural context marker, not a direct entry tool. When price is inside a Liquidity Void — retracing back through it — ICT Traders stand aside. There is no transactional history inside the void to support a reversal; price typically passes through the void entirely before finding support or resistance at the void boundary.
The trade comes at the void boundary — the price level where the fast move began. If that boundary coincides with an Order Block, an FVG, or a dealing range extreme, the confluence of the void fill and the PD array creates a high-probability reversal zone.
A common scenario: price delivers aggressively in a session, leaving a Liquidity Void. In the following session, price retraces back through the void. ICT Traders who marked the void boundary wait for price to reach that level — then look for an FVG or OB at the boundary with a kill zone time alignment — and enter. The target is the original delivery destination that was reached during the fast move.

Identifying Liquidity Voids on Your Chart

A Liquidity Void is visually obvious — it is a sustained candle or series of candles with minimal wicks covering significant price distance. On a candlestick chart, the candles inside the void are large bodies with small or no wicks, and there is no consolidation between them. On a line chart, the void appears as a near-vertical price move.
Mark the void by drawing a rectangle from the low of the fast move to the high of the fast move. The interior of the rectangle is the void. When price retraces into that rectangle, you are watching the fill. When price exits the rectangle at the entry boundary, the fill is complete.
Liquidity Voids are most common and most significant on the 4H and Daily charts — where session-level fast moves are clearly visible. On the 1H and 15M, they appear more frequently and are generally smaller in significance. Always interpret the void in the context of the daily bias and the current dealing range.

Liquidity Void vs Fair Value Gap: The Key Distinction

Both a liquidity void and a Fair Value Gap represent price imbalances — areas where price moved too fast for proper two-sided trading to occur. The distinction lies in scale and the mechanism of creation. A Fair Value Gap is created by a three-candle displacement sequence and typically spans the gap between two candles (the high of candle one and the low of candle three). A liquidity void is a larger imbalance — often spanning multiple candles — where price has effectively gapped through a price region with almost no trading activity.
On the chart, an FVG looks like a small gap between consecutive candles, usually within a single bar’s range. A liquidity void looks like a price region where the candles are entirely absent — a zone where the chart shows either no candles or candles with extremely small bodies and almost no wicks. This void of trading activity is what gives the concept its name: the area has almost no liquidity history, which means price will move through it very quickly on the return visit.
The practical implication: do not place limit orders INSIDE a liquidity void hoping to get filled at a specific price within the void. Because there is so little historical trading activity in the void, price typically passes through it rapidly without providing fills at intermediate levels. Instead, place your order at the FAR EDGE of the void — the price level where significant prior trading activity begins again on the other side of the void. That is where price is most likely to pause or react.

How and When Liquidity Voids Fill

Liquidity voids tend to fill in entirety rather than partially. Unlike FVGs, which often react at the 50% (CE) level before fully filling, voids tend to see price move straight through without pausing at intermediate levels. This is consistent with the name — because there is no historical liquidity within the void, there are no resting orders to slow price down as it passes through.
The timing of void fills follows the same algorithmic logic as FVG fills. Voids created during strong directional delivery phases are filled during subsequent retracement phases. A void created during Monday’s bullish expansion might be filled during Wednesday’s retracement. The fill is not guaranteed on any specific day — but the void remains as a structural magnet until it is addressed.
From a trading perspective, the most useful application of void analysis is target setting, not entry identification. If the draw on liquidity for a bullish trade is the prior week high, and a liquidity void sits between current price and that high, the void tells you that the path from here to the target will be fast and relatively unimpeded — price will move through the void quickly once it enters the region. This gives confidence in holding the trade through the void zone rather than taking profits prematurely at the edge of the void.

Watch: ICT Liquidity Void: What It Is and How Price Fills the Gap

Original ICT teaching on this concept from the Inner Circle Trader YouTube channel.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is a Liquidity Void the same as a price gap?+

Not exactly. A traditional price gap (gap-up or gap-down between sessions) is a specific form of Liquidity Void — there were no trades at the gapped price range. But an ICT Liquidity Void can also form within a session, without an actual gap on the chart, simply because price moved so fast that the volume at each level was essentially zero. The appearance is a sustained large-bodied candle or series of them with no wicks.

How far does price travel to fill a Liquidity Void?+

In most cases, price returns to fill a Liquidity Void completely — returning to the price level where the fast move began. Partial fills (50–80% of the void) are less common. When you see a void form, expect a complete fill before the original directional move continues.

Can I trade inside a Liquidity Void?+

The ICT approach is to avoid entering trades inside a Liquidity Void because there is no transactional support (no previous orders) within the void to cause a reversal. Price tends to pass through the void cleanly. Wait for price to reach the void boundary — where the fast move began — and look for the PD array there.

What causes a Liquidity Void on a news event?+

During high-impact news events (NFP, FOMC, CPI), one side of the market is caught entirely off-guard. All the orders on one side are triggered at once, price moves rapidly to the next available opposing liquidity pool, and the price range in between is essentially untransacted. The void left behind is often filled in the hours or session following the news event as two-sided participation resumes.

Is the Liquidity Void always bearish after an upward void?+

Not necessarily. A bullish Liquidity Void (fast upward move) that fills by retracing down is neither bullish nor bearish on its own — it is simply filling. The direction after the fill depends on the daily bias and the PD array at the void boundary. If the void boundary (the void's low) is also a bullish OB and the daily is bullish, the fill and reversal is long. If the daily is bearish, the fill may continue lower.

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