ICT Dealing Range Basics: How to Read Market Structure Like Smart Money 2025
- Published On: 27/11/2025
Join Our Telegram Channel
Master the ICT dealing range: learn how to mark HTF ranges, use EQ (premium/discount), read liquidity, identify CHoCH/BOS, and trade clean breakouts. Practical drills & cheat sheet.
Understanding price becomes difficult when you don’t know the boundaries the market is operating within. Most traders watch price move up and down and try to interpret every candle as a signal. But professional traders don’t react candle-by-candle — they read the map. And in ICT/SMC trading, that map is the Dealing Range.
A dealing range defines the high and low of the current dealing cycle. It shows you where price is expensive, where it’s cheap, where liquidity is sitting, and where the next expansion is most likely to start. Once you draw the range correctly, the entire chart begins to make sense. Suddenly, every CHoCH, BOS, liquidity sweep, FVG, and OB has context.
Without this range, the market feels chaotic. With it, you understand the structure, the intention, and the narrative.
By the time you finish this article, you will see the market in a completely different way. You’ll understand how to mark the dealing range correctly, how to use it as your directional guide, and how to read price with clarity instead of confusion. The dealing range will become your map — the first thing you draw and the foundation of every trade you take.
A Dealing Range is the most important framework in ICT/SMC market structure. It represents the current swing high and swing low that price is operating within. These two points—nothing more, nothing less—form the boundaries of the market’s active dealing cycle.
Think of it as the box that price is trading inside before it decides its next major move. Everything the market does—accumulation, distribution, liquidity sweeps, CHoCH, BOS, premium/discount shifts—unfolds inside this range. When you know the range, you understand the context of every move that comes after.
At its core, a dealing range is simply the recent major swing high and recent major swing low that define the current leg of the market. These swings must be meaningful: confirmed by structure, displacement, and often involved in a CHoCH or BOS event. Once identified, they give you a complete view of the market’s internal landscape.
Traders get confused when they don’t know which high and low currently matter. Without the dealing range, the chart feels random and directionless. With it, you can read the market like a narrative instead of reacting candle by candle.
In simple terms: A dealing range is the market’s “current operating zone” — the structure that frames everything happening right now. Understanding it is the first step toward reading price with clarity.
Marking a dealing range is simple in theory but difficult in practice because most traders select the wrong swing high or swing low. The goal is not to mark any high and low — the goal is to mark the two points that define the current dealing cycle. These points give your chart structure, direction, and a framework for expectation.
A dealing range must come from a significant, not minor, swing. A valid swing is one that clearly turned the market:
These swings define the market’s active narrative.
A swing is only important if the market respected it enough to move away with force. If price drifts away slowly or barely reacts, that swing is not worthy of defining a range. Look for:
This is where ICT logic comes in. The dealing range is formed from:
These two moves reveal where smart money shifted and committed, making their swings the true boundaries of the current dealing cycle.
The higher timeframe gives the clearest, cleanest dealing ranges. Start with:
Then refine on 15m or 5m if you need precision. Higher timeframes remove noise and give you undeniable structure.
The dealing range only resets when a new confirmed BOS creates a new leg. Minor pullbacks and weak swings do not create a new range. Stick with the current dealing range until the market creates a new one with real displacement.
Once you’ve marked the dealing range, the next step is to understand what happens inside it. This is where premium, discount, and the equilibrium line completely change how you see the chart. These three concepts tell you when price is cheap, when it’s expensive, and where smart money prefers to take positions.
The midpoint of the dealing range — the 50% equilibrium (EQ) — is the anchor of the entire internal structure. It splits the range into two zones:
This is not just theory. This is how institutional traders position themselves. In an ideal world:
When you start viewing price through this lens, entries that once looked random begin to make logical sense.
The upper half of the range is where price becomes expensive relative to the current dealing cycle. This is the zone where smart money:
Note: Premium isn’t an automatic sell zone, but it is a zone where buying becomes lower probability unless the market is preparing for expansion.
The lower half of the range is where price becomes cheap. Here, smart money often:
Like premium, discount isn’t an automatic buy zone — but it’s where smart money buying makes sense within the current narrative.
The 50% midpoint acts as a balance point where the market decides whether it prefers premium or discount. EQ often becomes:
If price stays below EQ and rejects it → sellers remain in control. If price stays above EQ and holds it → buyers dominate the structure.
Most failed trades happen because traders take entries in the wrong half of the range:
When you simply add EQ to your chart, these mistakes drop dramatically. You instantly understand where you have a structural advantage and where you are trading against logic.
Once you understand the premium and discount zones, the next layer of your dealing range map is liquidity. Liquidity is the fuel that powers every move the market makes. It determines where price goes and why it chooses one side of the range before the other. No dealing range is complete unless you also identify the liquidity sitting inside it.
Inside every dealing range, there are two major forms of liquidity:
These levels contain clusters of stop-losses, breakout orders, and trapped traders—exactly the type of orders smart money uses to enter or exit positions.
SSL rests below the swing lows inside your range. Traders place their stops here because lows act as “support.” Smart money knows this and often pushes price below these levels to:
A sweep of SSL inside the range often leads to a bullish shift or continuation.
BSL rests above the swing highs inside your range. Retail traders see highs as “resistance,” and their stops sit just above them. Smart money reaches for this liquidity to:
A sweep of BSL often precedes a bearish shift or continuation.
Before price leaves the dealing range, it will almost always attack at least one side of liquidity. This is not randomness — it’s the market collecting the fuel needed for expansion.
Typical sequence inside a range:
This is why you should never assume a range will break without first confirming liquidity has been taken.
Inside the range, liquidity often stacks unevenly:
Whichever side has more obvious liquidity is the side price usually takes first. This alone gives you a powerful edge when forecasting the next move.
With the dealing range marked and liquidity identified, the next question becomes: How do CHoCH and BOS fit into this structure? This is where most traders get confused, because they treat every break the same. In reality, CHoCH and BOS behave differently inside the dealing range versus at the boundaries of the dealing range. Once you understand this, the market narrative becomes clear.
A CHoCH is an early sign that momentum is shifting. It usually appears after liquidity is taken inside the range, not at the breakout.
For example:
This does NOT mean the range has broken. It only means the market has reacted to liquidity and shifted direction within the range. CHoCH = internal shift, not a breakout.
A Break of Structure (BOS) confirms the move out of the range, not inside it. For a true breakout:
This is the structure that confirms expansion. BOS = external break, not an internal reaction.
Most dealing ranges play out in a classic ICT sequence:
This “Sweep → CHoCH → BOS → Expansion” process repeats across all pairs and timeframes.
The internal CHoCH is the first clue of where price is likely to break the range.
Example inside a dealing range:
CHoCH gives directional bias before the BOS confirms it.
Once price breaks out with BOS, the market:
This is how structure progresses from one dealing range to the next.
Even after learning the theory, many traders still struggle with marking the dealing range correctly. This happens because real-time charts are messy, and traders often rely on what “looks like” a high or low instead of what actually defines the current dealing cycle. If the range is wrong, everything that comes after it—premium, discount, liquidity, CHoCH, BOS, entries—becomes unreliable.
This is the biggest mistake. Traders often pick the most obvious or visually dramatic swing instead of the swing that actually defines the structure. A valid swing must show clear rejection, displacement, and ideally be part of a CHoCH or BOS event.
Fix: Use structural swings, not micro pivots. The correct range always forms from the swing that shifted or confirmed direction.
Drawing ranges on 1m, 5m, or 15m charts leads to inconsistent results. These timeframes create too many small swings, causing constant redrawing.
Fix: Always start on HTF (Daily, 4H, 1H). Once the HTF range is set, refine it only if necessary.
Many traders draw a dealing range too early—before displacement or a structural reaction validates the high/low.
Fix: A swing becomes valid only after a clear impulsive move, FVG, or structural shift. Let the market confirm it.
Wicks are often just liquidity grabs. If you mark your range from wick extremes, your EQ, premium, discount, and internal liquidity become inaccurate.
Fix: Use candle bodies as structure, and extend to wicks only when liquidity context requires it.
Not every retracement creates a new dealing cycle. Many traders reset their dealing range too often, causing confusion.
Fix: The dealing range resets only when a confirmed BOS starts a new leg.
Some traders choose major highs/lows from months ago. While they are important, they are not the active dealing range.
Fix: Ask: “Which high and low is price currently dealing between right now?” That is the valid range.
Dealing ranges must be anchored by the structural swing that caused the CHoCH and the swing that confirmed it with BOS. If you ignore structure, your range becomes arbitrary.
Fix: Let CHoCH choose the low/high, and BOS confirm it.
If price has already broken and displaced out of the area, drawing the range afterward serves no purpose.
Fix: Identify the dealing range while price is still operating inside it. If the breakout is done, wait for the next range to form.
These mistakes are the root cause of inaccurate bias, wrong liquidity expectations, and incorrect CHoCH/BOS readings. Fixing them immediately improves your clarity and execution.
Once you know how to mark a dealing range correctly, the next step is learning how to use it on higher timeframes (HTF). This is where dealing ranges become extremely powerful. Higher timeframe ranges control the entire market narrative. They define the real bias, the real liquidity targets, and the real direction smart money is working toward.
Intraday moves might look random on a 5-minute or 15-minute chart, but they almost always make perfect sense when viewed inside the higher timeframe dealing range.
A Daily or 4H dealing range tells you the big picture:
No matter what the lower timeframes show, HTF structure dominates. If the Daily range is bullish from discount to premium, lower timeframes will produce more reliable long setups. This is why many traders lose: they try to trade LTF signals that go against the HTF dealing range.
Here’s a simple rule:
When HTF aligns with LTF: CHoCH becomes strong, BOS becomes meaningful, entries become high probability, and trades become easier to hold confidently. HTF range = your compass. LTF just provides timing.
London and New York sessions typically attack the same HTF liquidity points:
This is why ICT emphasizes session timing so heavily. HTF dealing ranges tell you which session will target which side.
Imagine the 4H dealing range shows price sitting in discount. LTF (5m–15m) will often show:
This is how intraday trades align perfectly with the main narrative.
Higher timeframe dealing ranges give you the narrative and the directional bias, but most entries—and most precision—come from lower timeframe (LTF) dealing ranges. These micro ranges form inside the bigger HTF range and help you time your trades with accuracy instead of guessing.
LTF dealing ranges don’t replace the main range; they refine it. They show where liquidity is building intraday, where reversals are forming, and where smart money is preparing to enter or exit positions. When used correctly, they give you pinpoint entries with tiny stops and huge RRR.
Every session creates its own micro-dealing range, especially during:
The best precision entries occur when an LTF dealing range forms inside a key part of the HTF range.
Scenario 1 — HTF in Discount → LTF forms a range → Liquidity sweep → Bullish CHoCH → BOS → Perfect long entry.
Scenario 2 — HTF in Premium → LTF forms a range → Liquidity sweep → Bearish CHoCH → BOS → Perfect short entry.
Use 15m to spot the range, 5m to confirm the reaction, and 1m to execute with precision.
The strongest entries follow this consistent pattern:
Without an LTF range, traders often:
The LTF dealing range forces discipline. It shows exactly where the market is accumulating orders before running. You no longer chase the breakout—you anticipate it.
Every dealing range ends the same way: with an expansion. But the type of expansion matters, because it tells you whether the break is real, fake, or simply a transition into the next dealing cycle. ICT teaches that price only leaves a dealing range in three possible ways. Once you learn to recognize them, breakouts stop being surprises and start becoming predictable parts of the narrative.
This is the cleanest and most powerful breakout. Price doesn’t just poke outside the range—it attacks it.
This type of breakout represents genuine institutional order flow and is the breakout traders want to ride.
This breakout is not explosive. Price edges out of the dealing range gradually, often without immediate displacement.
This often happens after large news events or when the market is transitioning into a new swing leg. It’s less dramatic, but still valid—especially if the break aligns with HTF direction.
This is the most common trap. Price moves outside the dealing range, but:
This is a liquidity raid, not a real breakout. The purpose is simple: hunt stops, remove weak traders, collect orders, then move in the opposite direction. These fake breaks are responsible for most trader losses because they look like real breakouts—until price snaps back.
Classify any breakout immediately by asking three questions:
With just these three checks, breakout confusion disappears.
Reading dealing ranges is a skill — and like any skill, the more you practice, the clearer it becomes. This short daily routine trains your eyes to recognize ranges, liquidity behavior, CHoCH/BOS interactions, and breakout patterns quickly and accurately. You don’t need hours of chart time. Just 10–15 minutes a day is enough to build strong intuition.
Open the Daily, 4H, or 1H chart and mark:
This gives you the main map for the day.
Add the midpoint between the high and low. This identifies premium, discount, balance points and expected reaction zones.
Inside the range, identify:
Scroll slowly through recent price action and mark the moment the market:
After a sweep, find the first clean shift in structure inside the range. This is your early warning that the range is preparing to break.
Mark the area where price pulled back (FVG, Order Block, Balanced price range). This becomes your entry zone in live markets.
Look for the moment price breaks decisively outside the range. This completes the dealing cycle and marks a new one beginning.
A simple line like:
This builds pattern memory fast. Within two weeks, you’ll start seeing dealing ranges everywhere — and trading becomes far more predictable.
This cheat sheet condenses the entire concept of dealing ranges into simple, actionable points you can refer to before every trading session. It’s designed to keep your analysis consistent, structured, and aligned with ICT logic.
A dealing range is the current operating zone of the market, defined by:
The range resets only after a confirmed BOS starts a new leg.
Smart money buys in discount and sells in premium.
Watch for:
CHoCH = early warning, not the breakout.
Once you understand dealing ranges, the entire market begins to make sense. What used to look like random movement becomes a structured narrative with clear boundaries, logical targets, and predictable behavior. The dealing range shows you exactly where price is operating, where it’s likely to go next, and which moves actually matter.
It is the foundation that ties every ICT concept together: CHoCH, BOS, liquidity sweeps, FVGs, OBs, entries, exits — all of them sit inside the dealing range framework. Without it, these concepts feel disconnected. With it, they fall perfectly into place.
The dealing range gives you three things every trader needs: clarity, direction, and timing.
From this point forward, make the dealing range the first thing you draw on your chart. Do it consistently, and you’ll see your understanding of price action transform. The market will finally feel logical — because you’re reading it the way it was designed to be read.
BOS vs CHoCH: How to Read Real Shifts in Market Structure (2025)
November 14, 2025
Complete ICT Trading Roadmap for 2025: From Basics to Pro Level
September 30, 2025
What is ICT Trading? A Complete Beginner-Friendly Guide (2025)
September 28, 2025
Connect with focused ICT learners on our Telegram. Get daily insights, updates, and clear guidance to simplify your trading journey.
Join Channel