Smart Money Concepts, Asia Session, London Kill Zone, Change in State of Delivery Strategy

Learn a 3-step SMC strategy for consistent trading. Establish bias, identify optimal sessions (Asia, London Kill Zone), and execute with CISD confirmation.

Published · Updated · Methodology: SMC

Part of: Fair Value Gap (FVG)

  • Methodology: SMC
  • Content type: strategy
  • Timeframes: Higher timeframe (for bias), 5-minute timeframe (for execution/CISD)
  • Markets: Gold, Forex, Indices, Futures, Any market with sufficient liquidity

Indicators used

  • Price Action
  • Order Block
  • Fair Value Gap (FVG)
  • Change in the State of Delivery (CISD)

Source video

Decoded from: This 3 Step Trading Strategy is Boring but It Made Me Profitable by The Simplified Trader — watch the original

Key timestamps:

  • 0:47 - Introduction to the three-step sequence
  • 1:38 - Step 1: Bias determination
  • 2:49 - Step 2: Market condition (session timing)
  • 3:55 - Step 3: Execution (CISD confirmation)
  • 4:30 - Stop loss and target setting
  • 5:40 - Bullish example breakdown
  • 7:00 - Bearish example breakdown
  • 8:20 - Summary of the three steps

Strategy overview

Smart Money Concepts trading is often presented as a wall of terminology, and a fair value gap — the price imbalance left behind when a move happens too fast for both sides to transact — is only one piece of that vocabulary. What makes this entry different is the framing of its source: The Simplified Trader's video "This 3 Step Trading Strategy is Boring but It Made Me Profitable" argues that the edge is not in adding more concepts, but in reducing them to a short, repeatable sequence and running it the same way every day. "Boring" is the pitch, not an aside.

The three steps are laid out in order in the video: bias first, market condition second, execution third. Bias is established on a higher timeframe, so the trader arrives at the session already knowing which direction they are willing to trade. Market condition is where session timing enters — the Asia session and the London kill zone act as the filter that decides whether the moment qualifies at all, rather than as signals in themselves. Only after both filters pass does execution happen, dropped down to a 5-minute chart and gated on a Change in the State of Delivery (CISD), the shift in how price is being delivered that this approach uses as its confirmation trigger.

The interesting part of this structure is the division of labour between the concepts. Order blocks and fair value gaps supply the context and the reference levels; the session window supplies the timing; CISD supplies the trigger. The video walks through stop-loss and target placement and closes with a bullish example, so the sequence is demonstrated end to end rather than described abstractly. This page catalogs the concepts and the source video for that reason — the sequence, not any single indicator, is what the strategy is built on.

Topics

smart money concepts · smc strategy · ict trading · trading strategy · price action · order block · fair value gap · cisd strategy · forex strategy · gold trading strategy · futures trading strategy · 5 minute strategy · scalping strategy · london kill zone strategy · asia session trading

Frequently asked questions

What is a Change in the State of Delivery (CISD)?

CISD is a Smart Money Concepts term for the moment price stops being delivered in one direction and starts being delivered in the other — a structural shift used as an execution trigger. In this strategy it sits at the final step, on the 5-minute timeframe, confirming an entry after bias and session timing have already been settled.

Why do the Asia session and the London kill zone matter in this strategy?

They function as a market-condition filter rather than as entry signals. The Asia session builds a reference range during lower-participation hours, and the London kill zone is the window where participation returns and the day's directional move often develops. If the timing does not qualify, the setup does not proceed to execution.

How does a fair value gap fit into a Smart Money Concepts setup like this one?

A fair value gap marks an imbalance left by a fast move, and price frequently revisits it later. In a sequenced approach like this one, FVGs and order blocks provide context and reference levels around which bias and execution are framed — they are supporting structure, not the trigger by themselves.

Why would a trader prefer a 'boring' three-step strategy?

Because a short, fixed sequence is repeatable and testable in a way that a discretionary blend of many concepts is not. Reducing a methodology to bias, condition, and execution makes it possible to check each step consistently and to evaluate the approach on historical data before risking capital.

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.

Strategy Decoder catalogs 2,229 decoded strategies. Each one is extracted with confidence scoring, cross-linked to the indicators it uses, and kept up to date as new videos are processed daily. Load this page with JavaScript enabled to use the interactive tools, or start from the strategy explorer to filter by methodology, market and timeframe.

Other versions of this strategy

More decoded strategies