Years ago, when Michael Huddleston (ICT) was an active participant on this forum, he taught his own, unique (some whould say, quirky) approach to markets. In his teaching, he defined and used many terms and abbreviations which he invented (or borrowed from other teachers), most of which were new and previously unknown to the Babypips community. “Kill Zones” was one of those new terms.
Back then, when I was following Michael’s postings here, I attempted to catalog his terminology. The result was a lengthy Glossary of ICT Terms and Abbreviations, which you can access HERE.
Regarding “kill zones,” here are some excerpts from that Glossary, which should answer the questions raised in this thread:
kill zone — one of 4 high-probability time periods (typically 2 hours each) in which to find trade set-ups using ICT tools; see A-KZ, LO-KZ, NYO-KZ, and LC-KZ
Asian session — 9am-7pm Tokyo time (a low-volume trading session, typically characterized by price consolidation within a restricted range)
Asian range — this term may refer to (1) the 9am-2pm Tokyo time period, (2) the H-L price range within that period, or (3) price action within that H-L range
Asian Kill Zone — nominally 8am-12pm Tokyo time (this time period may be expanded at the discretion of the trader); this is one of 4 kill zones
London session — 8am-5pm London time; the final 4 hours of this session (the L/NY overlap) typically constitute the highest-volume period of the trading day
London Open — 8am London time, the beginning of the normal business day in London
London Open Kill Zone — nominally 7am-9am London time (this time period may be expanded at the discretion of the trader); this is one of 4 kill zones
London Close — 5pm London time, the end of the normal business day in London
London Close Kill Zone — nominally 4pm-6pm London time (this time period may be expanded at the discretion of the trader); this is one of 4 kill zones
New York session — 8am-5pm New York time; the first 4 hours of this session (the L/NY overlap) typically constitute the highest-volume period of the trading day
New York Open — 8am New York time, the beginning of the normal business day in New York
New York Open Kill Zone — nominally 7am-9am New York time (this time period may be expanded at the discretion of the trader); this is one of 4 kill zones
Notes:
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Forex markets don’t actually open or close – they operate 24/7/365. What we call the “open” or the “close” of any market (Singapore, Toyko, London, etc.) is simply the time of day when business of all sorts intensifies, and forex trading ramps up dramatically. As a rule of thumb, we typically say that forex markets (with some exceptions) open at 8 am (local time) and close at 5 pm (local time). These are nominal opening and closing times, which bracket the high-volume period within the 24-hour trading day.
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Some traders who consider the three major trading sessions to be Tokyo, London, and New York, wonder why Michael refers to the trading session in Tokyo as the Asian Session. It’s because Tokyo is not the only major trading hub in east Asia. In fact, Tokyo is no longer the largest forex trading hub in Asia – Singapore is the largest (by forex trading volume), followed by Hong Kong. Tokyo is third-largest. To keep things manageable, Michael keyed his analysis of the Asian Session and the Asian Kill Zone to Tokyo time, rather than toggling back and forth between time in Tokyo (UTC+9) and time in Singapore or Hong Kong (UTC+8).
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You will note that Michael defined two kill-zones (around the open and close) for the London Session, but only one kil zone (around the open) for the Asian Session and the New York Session. This is because the overlap of the London Session and the New York Session intensifies late-day trading in London – whereas, by contrast, trading tapers off significantly toward the close in both Asia and New York.
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For additional commentary on Kill Zones, go to page 5 of the Glossary and scroll down to the section titled
• ICT Session Times and Kill Zones — expanded descriptions of the session times and kill zones defined in the alphabetical listing (pages 1-4) -
Michael left the Babypips community in 2013, taking all of his teaching resources with him. He picked up his toys and went home, so to speak. I stopped following him at that point. Everything in the Glossary refers to his teaching years ago, and may be out-of-date or irrelevant at this point. Take it with a grain of salt, and use it with discretion.