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ICT killzones on gold: which session really makes the high or the low of the day

7 November 2026, 09:47
Dobril Karakanchev
Dobril Karakanchev
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The short answer

One killzone is clearly real on gold: the New York open (07:00 to 10:00 New York time) makes the day's high or low much more often than chance. The London close is a strong second.

The idea

ICT traders say the important moves of the day happen in a few time windows, called killzones: Asia, the London open, the New York open and the London close. If that is true, the highest and the lowest price of the day should appear inside these windows more often than chance.

How we tested it

We took gold prices for every hour from 2008 to 2026 (4,873 weekdays). For each killzone we counted how often the day's high or low happened inside it, and compared that with chance. Example: the New York killzone is 3 hours long. If the high and the low could happen at any hour, about 14% of them would land in those 3 hours just by chance.

What happened

From 2008 to 2026:

  • New York open (07:00 to 10:00): 22% of the day's highs and lows, against 14% by chance. That is 1.6 times more than chance
  • London close (10:00 to 12:00): 14%, against 9% by chance, 1.5 times
  • London open (02:00 to 05:00): 14%, against 13% by chance, about chance
  • Asia (20:00 to 24:00): 13%, against 15% by chance, a little less than chance

So on gold the New York open is the strongest killzone, and the London close is a strong second. The London open, the most famous one, was close to its normal share on gold.

The last 11 months look different (November 2025 to September 2026, 237 days): London close 16% against 9% by chance, Asia 18% against 15%, New York open 15% against 14%, London open 11% against 14%. Market habits change. A pattern that held for 18 years can be weak for a whole year.

The Judas swing (London breaks the Asian high or low, and the day ends back inside the Asian range) happened on 46% of 4,268 days; on the other 54% the London breakout kept going, as we found last week.

What it means for you

  • Some killzones are real on gold: the New York open and the London close
  • Don't trust a session because of its name. Count it on your own symbol and in your broker's time
  • Check the recent months too, not only the long history, because the picture changes

Our free indicator ICT Killzones Honest Stats draws the killzones and shows this table on your own chart, for any symbol and any period: https://www.mql5.com/en/market/product/200542

Details for those who want them

  • Data: XAUUSD hourly from Dukascopy, 2008 to 2026; weekdays only
  • Day = the New York calendar day; all times New York time
  • Chance = the killzone's share of the day's trading hours

Have a strategy, an indicator or an EA you want tested like this? Write it in the comments.

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Next week: SMT divergence between gold and silver and between BTC and ETH, 216 tests.

#gold, strategy test, ICT, Sessions, killzones