Trading and Crypto

How to Find Trading Entries in 2026 Using the ICC Framework

How I Find My Trading Entries | Trading Course 003

Video: How I Find My Trading Entries | Trading Course 003

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· based on the channel SCI

Finding trading entries is the process of waiting for price to reach a level you already marked, then waiting again for price to prove it still respects that level — the entry is the confirmation, not the prediction. In practice that means working top-down: higher-timeframe bias first, a marked-up zone second, a lower-timeframe trigger third. SCI breaks this exact sequence down in the Trading Course 003 video "How I Find My Trading Entries", and the full course material and daily trade posts live on Instagram @tradesbysci.

Why most traders look for entries in the wrong place

Most losing trades are not lost at the entry — they are lost before it, because the trader never decided what would have to happen for the trade to be valid. A trader who opens a chart and immediately hunts for a candle pattern is working bottom-up: the chart tells them what to feel, and the feeling becomes the trade. A trader who starts with context is working top-down: the chart tells them where they are allowed to act, and everything else is waiting.

The practical difference shows up in three ways:

  1. Direction is decided before price arrives, so there is no debate in the moment.
  2. The level is drawn in advance, so the entry is a reaction to a plan rather than a reaction to a candle.
  3. Invalidation is fixed before the position exists, so risk is a number, not a mood.

When entries are treated as the first decision instead of the last one, every minor pullback looks like an opportunity and every small loss feels like bad luck. Neither is true. The entry is simply the moment the market confirms a story that was already written.

The ICC framework in plain terms

ICC stands for Indication, Correction, Continuation, and it is a way of reading a move as three distinct phases rather than one continuous blur. The indication is the impulse: a strong, one-directional push that breaks a prior structure and shows intent. The correction is the pullback that follows, where the market retraces part of that impulse and builds the zone you will later trade from. The continuation is the resumption of the original direction, and that resumption is what you are actually trying to catch.

Two details matter more than the labels. First, the correction should stay proportionate to the indication — a pullback that eats most of the impulse is a warning, not a setup. Second, the correction should leave something behind: a clear swing, an order block, a fair value gap, or simply a level that price reacted to on the way down and should react to on the way back up.

Once you can label these three phases on a chart, entries stop being a search and become a checklist. You are no longer asking "should I buy here?" — you are asking "has the correction finished and has continuation started?" Those are two very different questions, and only the second one has an answer the market can give you.

Building a top-down entry checklist

The entry checklist is the part of the process you can repeat every session without improvisation. It runs from the largest timeframe down to the smallest, and each step can veto the ones below it.

  1. Higher-timeframe bias. On the daily or 4-hour chart, decide whether the market is in an uptrend, a downtrend or a range. In a range, the honest answer is usually to wait.
  2. Mark the zone. Identify the last correction that produced the current leg. Mark the area where that correction began and ended — that is your area of interest, not a single price.
  3. Drop to the execution timeframe. On the 15-minute or 5-minute chart, watch how price behaves as it approaches the zone: does it slow down, wick into it, reject it, or slice straight through?
  4. Wait for the trigger. The trigger is the first sign that continuation has started — a structure break in your direction, a displacement candle closing away from the zone, or a lower-timeframe shift in momentum.
  5. Define risk before clicking. Place the stop behind the zone or behind the swing that created it, then size the position so that distance equals a fixed percentage of the account.

Steps 1 and 2 are done when the market is quiet. Steps 3 to 5 are done when the market is moving. Separating preparation from execution is what keeps the process stable across sessions, instruments and time zones.

Entries on XAUUSD, forex and crypto: what changes and what does not

Gold, major forex pairs and crypto all follow the same ICC logic, but their behaviour around the zone differs enough that the trigger has to be adjusted. XAUUSD moves fast and produces long wicks, so a stop placed too tight to the zone gets taken out by noise before the real move begins. Major forex pairs move more smoothly, which means the correction is often cleaner and the zone is narrower, but the reward for a correct entry is also smaller. Crypto respects levels well on higher timeframes but can gap and spike on lower ones, so the execution timeframe usually needs to be wider than it would be on forex.

What does not change is the order of operations. The bias still comes first, the zone is still marked in advance, and the trigger is still a confirmation rather than a prediction. Traders who switch instruments looking for "easier" entries usually discover that the difficulty was never in the market — it was in skipping steps. A trader who cannot wait for a trigger on EURUSD will not wait for one on Bitcoin either.

Common questions traders ask about entries

One recurring doubt is whether an entry is still valid after price has already reacted to the zone once. The answer depends on whether the original reason for the trade is intact: if the higher-timeframe bias still holds and the zone has not been broken with displacement, a second reaction is often the cleaner one, because the first reaction already showed who is defending that level. If the zone has been cut through decisively, the setup is gone and the level becomes resistance or support in the opposite direction.

Another common concern is entering too early out of fear of missing the move. This is the single most expensive habit in trading, because it converts a planned trade into an unplanned one, and unplanned trades have no defined invalidation. The cost of waiting for confirmation is a slightly worse price; the cost of not waiting is a position you cannot manage. Over a hundred trades, the first cost is small and the second one compounds.

A third question is how many setups a day are realistic. On most instruments, one or two clean ICC sequences per session is normal, and on quiet days the correct number is zero. Traders who feel they must enter something every day are usually trading their boredom, not the chart. The framework is a filter, and a filter that lets everything through is not doing its job.

Managing risk once the entry is taken

Risk management is what turns a good entry into a survivable strategy, and it starts with the distance between entry and stop. That distance is determined by the market, not by preference: if the zone is wide, the position is smaller; if the zone is tight, the position can be larger. Fixing the percentage risked per trade and letting the stop distance determine size keeps every loss the same weight, which is what makes a series of trades statistically meaningful instead of emotionally exhausting.

Beyond position size, two rules protect the process. First, do not move the stop further away once the trade is open — that is the moment a small planned loss becomes a large unplanned one. Second, take partial profit at the first logical level rather than waiting for a perfect target, because continuation moves rarely travel in a straight line. A trade that banks part of its gain and lets the rest run is easier to hold than one that must be right all the way.

Final thoughts on finding entries

The entry is the smallest part of a trade and the part most traders spend the most time on. What actually decides the outcome is the sequence around it: a bias that tells you which direction is allowed, a zone marked before price arrives, a trigger that confirms continuation, and a risk figure fixed before the position exists. SCI builds the whole Trading Course 003 around that sequence, and the value of the series is that it treats entries as a consequence of preparation rather than a moment of inspiration. If you want to follow the rest of the course and see the setups as they happen, the daily posts are on Instagram @tradesbysci — start there, mark your zones in advance, and let the market come to you.

Key takeaways

  • Entries are the last step, not the first: bias, then a marked-up zone, then confirmation on a lower timeframe.
  • The ICC framework stands for Indication, Correction, Continuation — a three-stage read of price.
  • A valid entry needs a level, a reaction and a trigger; missing any one of the three turns a trade into a guess.
  • Risk is defined before the entry: stop behind the zone or the swing that created it, size calculated from that distance.
  • Waiting for confirmation costs a few pips but removes most low-quality trades in ranging conditions.

Source: How I Find My Trading Entries | Trading Course 003 · Markdown version

Questions & answers

Do I need a specific indicator to find entries with the ICC framework?

No. ICC is a way of reading price structure, not an indicator-based system. You need a chart, a higher timeframe for bias, an execution timeframe for the trigger, and the discipline to mark the correction zone before price returns to it.

How do I know if a pullback is a correction or a reversal?

Proportion is the first clue: a correction that retraces most of the impulse is closer to a reversal than a setup. The second clue is behaviour at the zone — a clean reaction with displacement in the original direction supports continuation, while a decisive break through the zone invalidates the idea.

Is it better to enter early at the zone or wait for confirmation?

Waiting for confirmation usually wins over a large sample of trades. Entering early gives a better price but no defined invalidation, and without invalidation the position cannot be sized or managed properly.

How many ICC setups should I expect per day?

On most instruments, one or two clean sequences per session is realistic, and some sessions produce none. Treating zero as a valid outcome is part of the framework, because forcing a trade in a range is what turns a good process into a losing month.

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