ICT Killzones Explained: Times in New York and UTC

If you learn ICT or smart money concepts, you meet killzones early. The idea is simple: price doesn't move evenly through the day. It moves most when the big sessions open and when important data is released, and those are the hours when setups are most likely to follow through.

This guide gives you the exact times, converts them to UTC for both halves of the year, and shows how to check whether killzones actually improve your results.

What a killzone is

A killzone is a time window, anchored to New York time, during which a session's liquidity and volatility tend to be highest. Within the ICT framework, these windows are when the market is expected to run stops above or below obvious highs and lows before making its real move for the session.

Killzones are a filter. They answer "when should I be looking?" and leave "what am I looking for?" to your setup.

Killzone times

These are the windows most commonly used, as summarised in LuxAlgo's killzone reference. Sources differ slightly at the edges, so pick one version and keep it.

A common futures variant moves the New York AM window to 8:30 to 11:00 am, to start with the 8:30 data releases and cover the first 90 minutes of the cash open.

Why anchor to New York time?

Because the reference points are in New York: US data at 8:30 am, the equity open at 9:30 am, the futures settlement in the afternoon. If you anchor killzones to your local time, they drift by an hour twice a year.

Daylight saving: the two awkward weeks

The US and Europe change clocks on different dates. In 2026:

• Europe returns to winter time on 25 October.
• The US returns to standard time on 1 November.

For that one week, London is four hours ahead of New York instead of five. The London open killzone (2 to 5 am New York) then covers 6 to 9 am in London instead of 7 to 10 am. The same thing happens in March, when the US changes first (8 March 2026) and Europe follows (29 March 2026).

If your trading platform or killzone indicator is set to a fixed UTC offset, check it during these weeks.

What each killzone is for

Asian killzone

The quietest of the four for most markets. Many ICT traders don't trade it, but they mark the Asian range high and low, because the London session often runs one side of that range before choosing a direction.

London open killzone

Often the window where the day's first real move begins on forex pairs and gold. Common ICT reading: a sweep of the Asian high or low, then displacement in the other direction.

New York AM killzone

The busiest window for index futures. US data such as CPI and payrolls is released at 8:30 am, and the cash equity market opens at 9:30 am. Many NQ and ES traders trade only this window. The ICT Silver Bullet's 10:00 to 11:00 am hour sits inside it; see our guide to the ICT Silver Bullet.

London close killzone

As London winds down, moves made earlier in the day sometimes retrace. Some traders use this window for reversals; others treat it as their cue to stop for the day.

New York PM

Less used, but it contains the afternoon Silver Bullet hour (2 to 3 pm) and, on Fed days, the 2:00 pm rate decision and the press conference after it.

For the exchange hours around these windows, including the daily 4:00–5:00 p.m. CT break and prop firm flat-by times, see futures trading hours.

Killzones by market

This table describes common practice, not a recommendation. Your own data should decide.

How to use killzones without overtrading

The risk with killzones is turning them into an excuse: "it's the killzone, so something must happen." Three habits keep them useful.

1. Make the killzone one check, not the whole plan. Your checklist might be: higher-timeframe bias, sweep of a known level, displacement, a fair value gap entry, target at least 2R, and inside the killzone. Five other things must still be true.
2. Make "outside the killzone" a veto. If your data shows you lose money outside your window, stop trading there completely rather than trading smaller.
3. Respect the news inside the window. The New York AM killzone contains the 8:30 releases. Decide in advance whether you trade through them, wait a few minutes, or skip news days.

A sample New York AM routine

Here is how a futures trader might structure one killzone, from preparation to stop. Adjust the times to your own window.

7:00 to 8:15 am: preparation. Mark the overnight high and low, the London session high and low, and the previous day's high and low. These are the pools of liquidity price is likely to reach for. Note your higher-timeframe bias in one line.

8:15 am: news check. Look at the economic calendar. If there's an 8:30 release, decide now whether you'll wait until 8:35, 8:45 or 9:30 before looking for entries.

8:30 to 9:30 am: watch, don't chase. The first reaction to data is often fast and two-sided. Note which levels get taken.

9:30 to 10:00 am: the open. Spreads widen and moves are sharp. Many traders wait for the first 15 minutes to print before acting.

10:00 to 11:00 am: the main window. Look for your setup: a sweep of one of the marked levels, displacement away from it and an entry on the retrace. One or two trades, maximum.

11:00 am: stop. Log your trades, write one line on what you saw, and close the platform. The window is over, and so is your edge, until your data says otherwise.

Writing the routine down matters as much as the times. A killzone without a routine quickly turns into four hours of screen time and three unplanned trades.

The New York AM window often starts with an 8:30 a.m. ET release such as CPI. If you trade a funded prop account, read news trading at prop firms first: some firms require you to be flat around those releases.

Test it with your own journal

Killzones are a hypothesis about your trading. Test it.

Step 1: tag every trade with its session. Use New York time. If you trade from Europe or Asia, convert once and set your platform or journal to do it for you.

Step 2: wait for a sample. Thirty trades per window is the minimum before you look; a hundred is better.

Step 3: compare expectancy in R per window.

These numbers are an illustration of the layout, not real results. If your own table looks like this, the decision is easy: stop trading outside the killzones.

Step 4: look at time of day inside the window. Many traders find that their edge is concentrated in the first hour, and later trades in the same window are weaker.

TJ records each trade's session automatically (Asian, London, the London and New York overlap, New York) in your own time zone, and Review breaks your R down by session, weekday and hour. You can also make a killzone a veto in your strategy checklist, so Rate It! returns "no trade" when you're outside your window. The futures trading journal page shows how sessions are recorded for NQ and ES.

Common mistakes

• Mixing time zones. A killzone indicator set to UTC+0 in summer is an hour off for New York.
• Treating every sweep as a setup. Liquidity gets taken all the time in a killzone. Without displacement and a clear entry, it isn't a trade.
• Trading every killzone. Pick one or two windows that suit your schedule and your market. Trading four sessions a day is a fast route to fatigue and rule-breaking.
• Ignoring the calendar. A killzone that contains CPI or a Fed decision is a different market from an ordinary day.

Summary

Killzones help you spend your attention where the market is most active. Anchor them to New York time, watch the daylight-saving weeks, combine them with a written setup, and let your journal decide which window you keep.

Not financial advice. ICT concepts are a way of reading price; they don't predict outcomes, and trading involves risk of loss.