New York open liquidity sweep strategyIntermediate

Trading the first hours of New York after a sweep of any untaken high or low.

Simplified illustration, not real market data.

The idea

The overlap of London and New York is the most active part of the day. A common model waits for that session to take liquidity, then trades the reversal from a fair value gap. The swept side sets the direction: a swept high means shorts, a swept low means longs.

The rules

Trade between roughly 13:30 and 16:00 London time.
Wait for a sweep of any untaken high or low.
Wait for a fair value gap in the opposite direction.
Enter on the gap.
Stop beyond the sweep.
Target liquidity, at least 2R.
Skip days with high-impact US news inside the session.

Variations traders use

Some only count specific levels, such as the previous day or London session extremes. Others require a higher-timeframe bias.

What testing shows

Mechanically the setup tends to be near break-even across markets, with some markets (often GBPUSD and gold) doing better. The news filter usually helps. The live library page shows the current numbers.

What it looks like on a real chart

Picked automatically from the backtest on real data: the latest winner and the latest loser. The numbered circles are the steps of the rules, in order. Losers are part of every strategy.

Winner +2.43RXAU/USD · 15m · 2026-11-05 · Short

Loser -1.02RXAU/USD · 15m · 2026-08-26 · Long

How WickCheck tests it

Between 13:30 and 16:00 London time, wait for a liquidity sweep, then wait for a fair value gap. Enter on the FVG. Stop above the sweep. Target liquidity, at least 2R. Don't trade on days with red news.

Test it on real data

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Full results on 5 markets: New York open liquidity sweep strategy.

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Education only, not financial advice. Definitions vary between teachers; these are ours, written for clarity.