CRT — Candle Range TheoryICT Trading EducationArticle 33 of 100

ICT CRT Strategy: Pre-Session Preparation and Session-Specific Setups

You know what CRT is and how to execute it from Articles 31 and 32. This article covers the layer that makes those skills usable in a live session: the pre-session preparation routine that tells you which Reference Candle is in play, which direction your daily bias favours, and exactly what you are watching for — before price moves a single tick.

The Inner Circle Traders

Updated July 2026

10 min read

Cluster: CRT — Candle Range Theory

Key Takeaways

Pre-session CRT preparation means selecting the Reference Candle and marking RC High and RC Low before the session opens — so you are watching for a setup, not reacting to one
Daily bias determines which CRT direction you prioritise: bullish bias = watch for SSL swept and bullish Delivery; bearish bias = watch for BSL swept and bearish Delivery
The Asian session range (high and low of the Asian consolidation candle) is the most reliable Reference Candle for London Open CRT setups
The London session candle is the most reliable Reference Candle for New York Open CRT setups
A CRT Delivery that fails to reach Target 1 within the kill zone window should be abandoned — the institutional context that supported the setup has shifted

Why Pre-Session Preparation Is the Foundation of CRT

ICT Trading is a preparation-first methodology. The traders who struggle most with CRT are not struggling because they do not understand the three stages or the entry rules — they struggle because they are trying to identify the setup in real time, under pressure, as price is already moving. That is a reactive approach, and it produces reactive entries.

The Inner Circle Trader methodology is built on the opposite principle: every session begins with preparation, not observation. Before price opens the London or New York kill zone, an ICT Trader following the CRT framework should already have their Reference Candle marked, their RC High and RC Low drawn, both CRT scenarios mapped, and a clear sense of which scenario their daily bias favours. By the time the Seek & Destroy phase begins, there is nothing to identify — only a setup to confirm or discard.

This section covers that preparation routine and the two most important session-specific CRT configurations: the London Open setup using the Asian session range as the Reference Candle, and the New York Open setup using the London session candle as the Reference Candle.

The 5-Step Pre-Session CRT Checklist

Run this checklist at the end of the prior session or before the kill zone opens. It takes five to ten minutes and replaces in-session guesswork with pre-session clarity.

Figure 1 — Pre-session CRT preparation: the Reference Candle has formed and its high and low are marked before the session opens. Two scenarios are mapped — BSL swept leads to bearish Delivery (Scenario A); SSL swept leads to bullish Delivery (Scenario B). Daily bias determines which scenario the ICT Trader weights more heavily. The right half of the chart is intentionally blank — this is the pre-session view before price has moved.

5-Step Pre-Session CRT Checklist

Step 1 — Confirm daily bias. Before touching any Reference Candle, determine the directional context for the session. Which way does the higher-timeframe structure favour? What is the draw on liquidity? See our complete guide to ICT daily bias for the full bias-determination process. The daily bias is what determines which CRT scenario you will trade if both scenarios appear valid.

Step 2 — Identify the Reference Candle. Select the relevant prior session candle: the Asian session range candle if you are preparing for London, or the London session candle if you are preparing for New York. The Reference Candle must be a well-defined range — clear high and low with price having respected those levels for the session duration.

Step 3 — Mark RC High and RC Low on your chart. Draw horizontal lines at the Reference Candle high and low and extend them into the upcoming session. These are the levels you will watch. Identifying buy-side and sell-side liquidity resting above and below these levels is part of this step — the stop clusters are what the Seek & Destroy will target.

Step 4 — Identify resting BSL and SSL. Mark the buy-side liquidity pool above the RC High and the sell-side liquidity pool below the RC Low. These are the targets of the Seek & Destroy phase. The larger and more obvious these pools are, the more reliable the CRT setup will be.

Step 5 — Map both CRT scenarios in advance. Write or visualise two conditional scenarios: (A) If BSL is swept above RC High → watch for bearish CHoCH → bearish FVG entry → Delivery to RC Low. (B) If SSL is swept below RC Low → watch for bullish CHoCH → bullish FVG entry → Delivery to RC High. Daily bias determines which scenario you will act on. If bias is bullish, Scenario B (SSL sweep → bullish Delivery) is your primary setup. Scenario A (BSL sweep → bearish Delivery) would be against bias and requires a higher-confidence setup to take.

London Open CRT — The Asian Range as Reference Candle

The Asian session (8:00 PM – 2:00 AM EST) is characterised by low volatility and institutional consolidation. Price typically ranges within a contained high and low during this window — creating exactly the liquidity conditions CRT requires. The Asian session high represents a pool of buy-side stops; the Asian session low represents a pool of sell-side stops. When the London kill zone opens at 2:00 AM EST, institutional participants arrive with orders to fill — and they fill them using that resting liquidity.

The London Open CRT setup follows this sequence: the Asian range forms the Reference Candle. At or shortly after the London open, price sweeps one extreme of the Asian range — either the high (BSL swept) or the low (SSL swept) — triggering the resting stops. A Change of Character forms confirming the sweep is complete, a Fair Value Gap appears in the displacement, and the Delivery phase begins in the opposite direction through the Asian range body.

Figure 2 — London Open CRT: the Asian session forms a contained range candle (Reference Candle). At London Open, price sweeps below the RC Low clearing sell-side liquidity (Seek & Destroy). A CHoCH forms back above the RC Low. A bullish FVG is created in the displacement. Entry is taken at the FVG retracement. The Delivery phase carries price upward through the Asian range body toward the RC High during the London kill zone.

Key characteristics of the London Open CRT that distinguish it from the generic setup covered in Article 32:

The sweep at London open is often sharp and fast — one or two aggressive candles that extend well beyond the Asian high or low. This is intentional: the move needs to be large enough to trigger the maximum number of stops sitting beyond the Asian range extreme. ICT Traders should not mistake this aggressive sweep for a genuine breakout. The confirmation that it is a sweep (not a continuation) is the CHoCH that follows.

The Delivery phase in a London Open CRT setup is typically contained within the London kill zone window (2:00 AM – 5:00 AM EST). If price has not reached Target 1 (the opposite Asian range extreme) by the time the London kill zone closes, the delivery energy is dissipating and the setup should be managed conservatively — either trail the stop or exit.

New York Open CRT — The London Session Candle as Reference Candle

By the time the New York kill zone opens at 7:00 AM EST, the London session has produced a full directional move with clearly defined highs and lows. The London session candle — or a key one-hour candle from the London session — becomes the Reference Candle for the New York CRT setup. The logic is identical to the London Open setup but with different timing and a different Reference Candle source.

The New York Open CRT is often the more reliable of the two setups for several reasons. The London session has already established a directional move, which means the inner Circle Trader methodology’s daily bias alignment is easier to confirm by the time New York opens. The Reference Candle (the London session candle) is typically larger and cleaner than the Asian range candle, producing a wider range with more liquidity resting at its extremes.

Figure 3 — New York Open CRT: the London session forms the Reference Candle with its high and low marked. At the NY open, price sweeps above the RC High, clearing buy-side liquidity (Seek & Destroy). A CHoCH forms back below the RC High. A bearish FVG forms in the CHoCH displacement. Entry is taken at the FVG retracement. The Delivery phase carries price downward through the London session range body toward the RC Low and beyond, into the New York kill zone.

The bearish NY Open CRT setup shown in Figure 3 is the mirror of the bullish London Open setup in Figure 2 — a deliberate pairing to make the session-specific symmetry clear. In practice, the direction of each session’s CRT setup is determined by the daily bias, not by a fixed assumption about which direction London or New York will sweep.

Feature	London Open CRT	New York Open CRT
Reference Candle source	Asian session range (8 PM – 2 AM EST)	London session candle (2 AM – 7 AM EST)
Sweep timing	At or within 30–60 min of London open (2 AM EST)	At or within 30–60 min of NY open (7 AM EST)
Kill zone delivery window	London kill zone: 2 AM – 5 AM EST	New York kill zone: 7 AM – 10 AM EST
RC size	Typically smaller (Asian range is contained)	Typically larger (London session range is wider)
Reliability	High during trending market conditions	High — often cleaner due to larger RC and clearer bias alignment

How Daily Bias Shapes Which CRT Setup You Take

The single most common CRT strategy error is trading both scenarios with equal conviction regardless of the broader directional context. The Inner Circle Trader methodology does not work that way — daily bias creates a hierarchy that filters which setups you act on.

On a bullish bias day, your primary CRT watch is for the SSL to be swept and a bullish Delivery to follow. When the SSL sweep and bullish CHoCH appears, you act with full conviction — this is your setup, aligned with the broader bias. When the BSL sweep appears instead (Scenario A), you are watching price sweep against your bias — this can still be a valid trade, but it requires a higher-confidence confirmation and should be sized conservatively, because it is trading against the session’s broader context.

On a bearish bias day, the hierarchy inverts: BSL sweep → bearish Delivery is the primary setup; SSL sweep → bullish Delivery is the secondary, lower-conviction scenario.

Practically, this means an ICT Trader using the pre-session checklist should mark one scenario as primary and one as secondary before the session opens. If the secondary scenario triggers without an unusually strong CHoCH and large FVG, it is often better to pass and wait for the next session.

What to Do When the CRT Setup Does Not Deliver

Not every CRT sweep leads to a clean Delivery. Understanding when to abandon the setup is as important as understanding when to enter it.

Three situations call for abandoning a CRT Delivery position or waiting for a new setup:

The kill zone has closed. If the London kill zone closes (5:00 AM EST) and the Delivery has not reached Target 1, the institutional pressure that supported the sweep has dissipated. The Inner Circle Trader methodology treats the kill zone window as the Delivery’s natural time boundary — holding beyond it often results in a stalled or reversed trade during the low-participation mid-session hours.

Price re-enters the Seek & Destroy zone. If price, after the CHoCH, retraces back through the RC High or RC Low level that was swept — and closes beyond it — the setup is invalidated. The sweep was not a genuine liquidity grab but a continuation move in the original direction. Exit and re-assess the daily bias.

The daily bias has shifted. If a significant structural change occurs on a higher timeframe during the Delivery phase — a BOS that invalidates the daily bias — the CRT Delivery no longer has a higher-timeframe mandate. See our guide to ICT kill zones and session structure for the broader context that governs when setups remain valid.

Frequently Asked Questions

Watch: ICT CRT Strategy: Pre-Session Preparation and Session-Specific Setups

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

How do you prepare for a CRT setup before the session?+

Pre-session CRT preparation follows a five-step routine: (1) confirm the daily bias, (2) identify the Reference Candle for the upcoming session — Asian range for London, London session candle for New York, (3) mark RC High and RC Low on the chart, (4) identify the BSL and SSL pools resting above and below those levels, and (5) map both CRT scenarios in advance — BSL swept leads to bearish Delivery; SSL swept leads to bullish Delivery. Daily bias determines which scenario to prioritise when both appear.

What is the best Reference Candle for a London Open CRT?+

The Asian session range candle is the most reliable Reference Candle for London Open CRT setups. The Asian session (8:00 PM – 2:00 AM EST) typically produces a contained, well-defined range with clear high and low levels. When the London kill zone opens at 2:00 AM EST, institutional participants sweep one of those extremes before delivering price in the opposite direction through the Asian range body.

What is the best Reference Candle for a New York Open CRT?+

The London session candle — or a key one-hour candle from the London session — is the most reliable Reference Candle for New York Open CRT setups. By the time the New York kill zone opens at 7:00 AM EST, the London session has produced a directional range with clearly defined liquidity pools at its high and low. The NY open sweep of one of those levels, confirmed by a CHoCH, produces one of the most consistent CRT Delivery setups in the ICT Trading framework.

How does daily bias affect which CRT setup you take?+

Daily bias creates a hierarchy between your two pre-mapped CRT scenarios. On a bullish bias day, the SSL sweep → bullish Delivery scenario is your primary setup and you act on it with full conviction. The BSL sweep → bearish Delivery scenario is secondary and should only be taken with unusually strong confirmation. On a bearish bias day, the hierarchy inverts. An ICT Trader should mark one scenario as primary before the session opens and weight their conviction accordingly.

How do you find CRT setups?+

CRT setups are found through preparation, not real-time scanning. Before each session, identify the relevant Reference Candle (Asian range for London, London session candle for NY), mark its high and low, and watch for price to sweep one of those extremes at or shortly after the session open. A sweep followed by a CHoCH and a Fair Value Gap in the correct direction is the complete CRT signal. The pre-session checklist in this article provides the step-by-step routine for systematically locating these setups before they trigger.

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Contents

—Why Preparation Comes First
—Pre-Session CRT Checklist
—London Open CRT
—New York Open CRT
—Daily Bias and CRT Direction
—When CRT Fails to Deliver
—Watch: Pre-Session Walkthrough
—Frequently Asked Questions
—Test Your Knowledge

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