NQ ICT Semi-Auto Strategy v1

NQ ICT Semi-Auto Strategy v1 at a glance

Kind of rule	Chart turning points (price action and market structure)
Buys or sells	It can buy, and it can bet on falling prices.
Built on	ATR, Donchian Channels, EMA, Pivot points, bars since, pivot low
Where it was published	TradingView, by its author, as a Pine Script strategy
Tested on	10 cells: 9 coins, October 2021 to June 2026, no fee
Trades placed	none
Page updated	2026-11-08

NQ ICT Semi-Auto Strategy v1 backtest results, every cell

There is no cloud of cells to draw. The frame below says why.

How NQ ICT Semi-Auto Strategy v1 works

Rules in this group usually work like this. It tries to act the way a person reading a chart would: at spots where price turned, at gaps, and at places where many people are likely to have set a stop. In code those ideas become counts of bars. The result depends on how those spots are defined. The next paragraph is this particular rule, which can be narrower than the group.

It can buy, and it can bet on falling prices. It acts only when several checks agree at once. It leans on ATR, EMA, pivot high, pivot low; those names are explained on their own pages, further down. The exact line is in the list below, in the author's names, and you can skip that list. When it enters, it also sets a stop or a target, so a trade can close without a new signal.

Each trade uses 2 percent of the account. It holds one trade at a time.

The exact condition, from the code

Same rule, translated from the code, in the author's names. You can skip this list if the paragraph above was enough.

• Enters short when no position is open and trades today is below Max Trades Per Day (2) and (in ny open or Enable NY PM (off) and in ny pm) and not (Block Monday (off) and is monday) and retrace into bear fair value gap and valid short stop and (Manual Bias (Mixed) equals 'Bearish' or Manual Bias (Mixed) equals 'Mixed') and sp weak.
• Enters long when no position is open and trades today is below Max Trades Per Day (2) and (in ny open or Enable NY PM (off) and in ny pm) and not (Block Monday (off) and is monday) and retrace into bull fair value gap and valid long stop and (Manual Bias (Mixed) equals 'Bullish' or Manual Bias (Mixed) equals 'Mixed') and sp weak.
• Places a stop at (the smaller of the low and pdl − (mintick × Stop Buffer (ticks) (4))), a target at (the average entry price + ((the average entry price − pending long stop) × Final Target R (2))) when a long position is open.
• Places a stop at (the larger of the high and pdh + (mintick × Stop Buffer (ticks) (4))), a target at (the average entry price − ((pending short stop − the average entry price) × Final Target R (2))) when a short position is open.

Buys or sells	It can buy, and it can bet on falling prices.
Tools it calculates	ATR, Donchian Channels, EMA, Pivot points, bars since, pivot low
A second chart speed	Yes. It also looks at a second chart speed.
Only at certain hours	Yes. It only acts during set hours.
Adding to a trade	It holds one trade at a time.
How much it trades	Each trade uses 2 percent of the account.
Cost the author assumed	The author assumed a trading cost of 0 percent per side.

Default settings

The test used the defaults in the middle column. Nothing was turned to help a coin.

Setting	Default	Group
Manual Bias	Mixed
SP500 Confirmation Symbol	CME_MINI:ES1!
Confirmation Mode	Balanced
SP500 EMA Length	20
SMT Lookback	20
Session Timezone	America/New_York
NY Open	0930-1130
NY PM	1330-1530
Enable NY PM	off
Block Monday	off
Pivot Length	3
Midpoint No-Trade Band %	0.1
Bars Allowed Between Sweep/Disp/MSS	6
ATR Length	14
Displacement ATR Multiplier	1.2
Min Body / Range Ratio	0.6
Close Near Edge %	0.25
Minimum FVG Size (ticks)	8
Max Trades Per Day	2
Max Stop Distance (points)	80
Stop Buffer (ticks)	4
Final Target R	2
Break-Even Trigger R	1.5
Plot PDH / PDL / Mid	on

and 2 more settings, left at the author's defaults.

How the backtest was run

Every strategy was tried the same way, on the settings the author published.

The years are October 2021 to June 2026. The prices are from Bybit, for 13 widely traded coins, mostly on hourly, 4-hour and daily charts, with some faster charts. That was 47,242 tries. The window stored in the files is 2021-09..2026-06.

599 rules produced a finished try. A rule that finished above zero on at least 12 cells, before any fee, was tried again with a fee of 0.12 percent per side. Only buys are counted in that second try. 273 rules got it.

The method, the aggregate results and a downloadable table are on the study page. What the desk does with the results beyond these pages is its own.

Before any fee, it was tried on 10 cells, and it placed no trades.

It was not run a second time with a fee. That second pass happens only when at least 12 cells finished above zero before fees. 273 rules got that pass.

Cells tried	10
Cells that placed a trade	0
Finished above zero	0

Label: backtest · old prices, zero commission · Oct 2021 – Jun 2026. Hypothetical results; see the risk disclosure.

How to read the result

How to read the number

No cell took a trade, so there is no return to read. The rule above is the whole note.

What this does not show

The useful question is how the turning points are counted in the code. A person can be vague. The code has to count bars.

There is no cell to single out, and this note does not invent one. Other years, another exchange, or another fee would be a different measurement.

Questions about NQ ICT Semi-Auto Strategy v1

Words used on this page

Backtest

The rule was tried on old prices. No real money moved.

Cell

One coin on one chart speed. Bitcoin every 4 hours is one cell. Bitcoin once a day is another.

Chart speed

How often a new price bar is drawn. 15m means every 15 minutes, 1h means hourly, 4h means every 4 hours, 1D means once a day.

Fee, per side

A cost taken each time the rule trades. Per side means once on the way in and once on the way out.

Median

Line the cells up from the biggest loss to the biggest gain. The median is the middle one. Half the cells did better and half did worse.

Drawdown

The deepest fall from a high point along the way, as a percent of the account at that high.

Above zero

The account finished with more than it started.

The indicators NQ ICT Semi-Auto Strategy v1 uses

Each has its own page: what it measures, how it is read, where it misleads.

• ATR (average true range): the volatility number behind most stops
• Donchian Channels: the highest high and lowest low, and the breakout rule they define
• Exponential moving average (EMA): what it measures and where it misleads
• Pivot points: swing pivots and floor-trader pivots, two different things with one name

"NQ ICT Semi-Auto Strategy v1" was published on TradingView by its author, under the author's own license. This page is an independent reading of those rules and of what they did on these old prices. It is not written with the author, and it is not a recommendation. Not every detail survives the translation onto this page, so read the original before you rely on it.