Order Blocks, Smart Money Concepts, Break of Structure, Change of Character

Learn an ICT trading strategy using Smart Money Concepts. Identify H4 trends, pinpoint 15-minute order blocks, and confirm entries with Break of Structure (BOS)

Published · Updated · Methodology: ICT

Part of: Order Blocks

  • Methodology: ICT
  • Content type: strategy
  • Timeframes: H4, 15-minute
  • Markets: Pound Sterling against the US Dollar (GBPUSD)

Source video

Decoded from: HOW TO IDENTIFY and TRADE HIGH PROBABILITY ORDER BLOCKS using ICT | SMART MONEY CONCEPTS by It's Smart Money — watch the original

Key timestamps:

  • 0:30 - Identifying major trend (H4)
  • 1:30 - Defining trading range (H4)
  • 2:00 - Identifying points of interest/order blocks (H4)
  • 3:45 - Understanding decisional vs. extreme points
  • 4:20 - Theoretical explanation of 15-minute structure and change of character
  • 5:20 - Confirmation to sell and target for discount
  • 6:50 - Real example: identifying BOS and Choch on 15-minute
  • 8:00 - Looking for point of interest (decisional/extreme) for entry
  • 8:40 - Validating order block with liquidity (equal highs)

Strategy overview

In ICT and Smart Money Concepts, an order block is the last opposing candle or consolidation before a strong displacement in price — a zone traders mark as a likely origin of institutional activity. The video decoded here, "HOW TO IDENTIFY and TRADE HIGH PROBABILITY ORDER BLOCKS using ICT | SMART MONEY CONCEPTS" from the channel It's Smart Money, is less concerned with defining the term than with narrowing it: any chart offers far more order blocks than tradeable ones, and the walkthrough is organised around deciding which of them deserve attention.

Its answer is a two-timeframe division of labour. The H4 chart does the locating — establishing the major trend first, then defining a trading range, then marking points of interest inside that range — while the 15-minute chart handles the timing. Along the way the presentation separates decisional from extreme order blocks, a distinction that only becomes meaningful once a range has been drawn, since the same zone reads differently depending on where it sits between the premium and discount halves of that range. The worked example runs to the sell side, with the discount end as the destination.

The lower timeframe then carries the confirmation step, where a change of character in 15-minute structure is what turns a marked H4 zone into an entry premise rather than just a drawn rectangle. This entry catalogues the video as a source rather than a fixed rule set — the sequence is taught by demonstration on a live chart, so what travels between markets is the order of operations (trend, range, point of interest, lower-timeframe confirmation) rather than a list of settings.

Topics

order blocks strategy · smart money concepts · ict trading · break of structure · change of character · gbpusd strategy · h4 timeframe strategy · 15 minute strategy · price action trading · forex strategy · tradingview strategy · pine script strategy · swing trading

Frequently asked questions

What is an order block in ICT and Smart Money Concepts?

An order block is the last opposing candle or consolidation before a strong directional move, marked as a zone where large orders are presumed to have been placed. Traders watch for price to return to that zone and react from it.

What is the difference between a decisional and an extreme order block?

In common ICT usage, the extreme order block is the one furthest at the origin of a move, while a decisional order block sits closer to the middle of the structure and is associated with the decision point that broke it. The source video dedicates a section to this distinction (around the 3:45 mark) because the two are used differently depending on where they fall inside the trading range.

Why does this approach use both the H4 and the 15-minute chart?

The two timeframes answer different questions. In this video, H4 is used to establish the major trend, define the trading range and locate points of interest; the 15-minute chart is where structure and change of character are read to confirm before acting on one of those zones.

How can I study an order block approach like this one?

Mark the higher-timeframe zones on historical charts first and review how price behaved on the lower timeframe when it returned to them, logging outcomes before risking capital. Strategy Decoder catalogues video sources like this one by concept, methodology and timeframe so you can compare how different traders apply the same idea.

About this strategy page

This trading strategy was decoded by Strategy Decoder's AI from a public YouTube trading video and turned into a structured, reviewable specification. In the interactive app this page shows the full entry and exit logic, risk management settings, the indicators involved with their parameters, AlgoWizard-compatible logic and a Pine Script export ready for TradingView backtesting — plus an automated backtest verdict when one has been computed for this strategy.

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