ICT Trading Method – Turtle Soup Concept

The Turtle Soup Concept is a powerful short-term reversal trading setup used in the ICT (Inner Circle Trader) methodology.
It is inspired by the original Turtle Trading system developed by Richard Dennis and William Eckhardt in the 1980s, but ICT adapted it to target liquidity grabs and market manipulation patterns often seen in Forex and other markets.

1. The Core Idea

Markets have a tendency to trap traders by pushing price beyond well-known swing highs or lows, triggering breakout trades… only to reverse back in the opposite direction.
The Turtle Soup setup takes advantage of these false breakouts to enter trades in the direction of the reversal.

In simple terms:

Price breaks above a recent high (buy-side liquidity), then fails and drops.
Price breaks below a recent low (sell-side liquidity), then fails and rises.

2. Why It Works

The concept is based on liquidity hunts:

Many retail traders place stop-loss orders just beyond recent highs/lows.
Institutional traders push price into these zones to trigger stops and collect liquidity.
Once stops are triggered and breakout traders are in, the market quickly reverses, catching them on the wrong side.

3. Rules for the Turtle Soup Setup

A. Bullish Turtle Soup (Long Trade)

Identify a recent swing low (usually 20-period low on your chosen timeframe).
Price must break below that low in the current session or day.
Wait for price to close back above that old low.
Enter long after confirmation.
Stop-loss goes below the day’s low.
Target the nearest resistance or liquidity pool above.

B. Bearish Turtle Soup (Short Trade)

Identify a recent swing high (usually 20-period high).
Price must break above that high.
Wait for price to close back below the old high.
Enter short after confirmation.
Stop-loss goes above the day’s high.
Target the nearest support or liquidity pool below.

4. ICT Adaptation

ICT adds market structure and liquidity theory to refine the Turtle Soup concept:

Look for highs/lows near key time sessions (London, New York).
Trade in alignment with the daily bias (based on the higher timeframe trend).
Avoid trading into nearby opposing liquidity (e.g., don’t take a short if strong buy-side liquidity is just below).
Combine with fair value gaps (FVG) or order blocks for higher probability entries.

5. Example Scenario

Let’s say EUR/USD has been consolidating for 2 days.

Yesterday’s high was 1.0950.
During London Open, price spikes to 1.0962, breaking yesterday’s high.
Suddenly, within 15 minutes, price drops back under 1.0950.
This signals a Turtle Soup Short.
You enter short at 1.0948, stop-loss at 1.0965, target 1.0900.

6. Advantages

High reward-to-risk setups.
Works well in Forex, indices, and commodities.
Excellent for intraday scalps and swing trades.

7. Common Mistakes

Entering before price reclaims the old high/low (no confirmation).
Ignoring higher timeframe bias.
Trading during low liquidity periods.

Conclusion

The ICT Turtle Soup Concept is a smart way to profit from false breakouts and liquidity hunts.
By combining the original Turtle Soup rules with ICT’s market structure concepts, traders can increase their accuracy and capture sharp reversals with tight stop-losses.
Like all strategies, it requires practice, patience, and proper risk management.

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ICT Trading Method – Turtle Soup Concept