Trading and Crypto

How I Find My Trading Entries in 2026 With the ICC Method

How I Find My Trading Entries | Trading Course 003

Video: How I Find My Trading Entries | Trading Course 003

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· based on the channel SCI

Key takeaways

  • Entry timing is a separate skill from market analysis — the setup can be right while the entry is still early or late.
  • The ICC framework builds entries from three stages: Indication, Correction, Continuation.
  • SCI's Trading Course 003 walks through entry selection on instruments such as XAUUSD during live sessions.
  • Marking up a chart before the session starts is what makes an entry mechanical rather than emotional.
  • Risk management and position sizing decide the outcome more than the entry itself — several viewers learned that the hard way.

Entries are found by marking up a chart before the session, waiting for price to show an indication, then entering on the correction or the continuation of that move — not by reacting to candles in real time. The ICC method (Indication, Correction, Continuation) breaks that process into three repeatable stages, and Trading Course 003 from the SCI channel is a full walkthrough of how those stages turn into an actual click of the buy or sell button. For chart breakdowns and trade examples between episodes, the author posts them at Instagram @tradesbysci.

Why trading entries are a separate skill from analysis

Finding an entry is not the same as finding a direction. Most traders who can read a chart still lose money because they act on the first sign of a move instead of waiting for the structure to confirm it. The entry is the moment where a thesis becomes a position with a defined invalidation point — and that moment has rules.

The practical consequence is that entries must be planned while the market is closed or quiet, not improvised while price is moving. A marked-up chart turns a decision into a checklist: if this level holds and this structure breaks, I act; if not, I do nothing. That is the difference between trading and guessing.

The three stages of an ICC entry

ICC stands for Indication, Correction, Continuation, and each stage answers a different question.

  1. Indication — price shows intent. A sweep, a displacement candle or a break of a short-term high or low tells you which side is being targeted. This is information, not an entry.
  2. Correction — price pulls back into the area the indication came from. This is where the entry is prepared: the retracement gives you a tight invalidation level and a better price than chasing the initial move.
  3. Continuation — price resumes in the direction of the indication. This is the confirmation that the correction is over and the entry is live.

The mistake most viewers describe is entering during the indication and getting stopped out during the correction. The correction is not a failure of the setup; it is part of the setup.

How the markup is built before the session

A markup is a set of horizontal levels and zones drawn on a higher timeframe before any trade is taken. It usually includes the previous day's high and low, the session extremes, and any obvious imbalance or consolidation that price left behind.

The markup does two jobs. First, it limits attention: you only watch the levels you drew, so you are not reacting to every candle. Second, it standardises the decision: the same level produces the same plan on a quiet day and on a volatile one. On an instrument like XAUUSD, where a single session can travel hundreds of points, that standardisation is what keeps a trader from chasing.

Timing the entry inside the correction

The correction is where timing is decided, and timing is the part that looks simple until you actually trade it. Two rules make it manageable.

  • Wait for the reaction, not the touch. Price reaching a level is not a signal. Price reacting at the level — rejecting it, wicking from it, or displacing away from it — is.
  • Use a lower timeframe only for execution. The higher timeframe defines the zone; the lower timeframe defines the trigger. If you flip that order, the lower timeframe noise will talk you out of good trades.

A useful habit is to write the trigger down before the session: the exact condition that makes the trade valid. If the condition is not met, there is no trade — and no trade is a position.

Risk, size and the part viewers get wrong

Risk management decides the result more than the entry does. A good entry with oversized risk still ends an account; a mediocre entry with controlled risk is survivable and repeatable.

In practice that means fixing the risk per trade as a percentage of the account, placing the stop at the level that invalidates the idea rather than at a round number, and sizing the position from that distance. Traders who came back to the course after a bad stretch consistently report the same lesson: the method worked, but their position size and emotions did not. Entry quality improves results only after risk is capped.

Common questions traders ask about entries

Several recurring doubts come up around this material. Does the method work on any instrument? The structure is instrument-agnostic, but spreads, session hours and volatility change how wide the correction will be, so the markup has to be adapted. Does it work on a low-volume session? Low volume can actually help, because there is less noise to process and decisions are cleaner — night-shift traders report exactly that. How many setups per day? Usually far fewer than beginners expect; most sessions produce one or two valid indications, and some produce none.

Final thoughts on building a repeatable entry process

Entries are not found by watching price; they are found by preparing a markup, waiting for an indication, and acting only when the correction and continuation confirm the idea. The ICC framework is valuable precisely because it slows the decision down into three checkable stages instead of one impulse. Pair that structure with fixed risk per trade, and the entry stops being a gamble and becomes a repeatable process. The SCI channel develops this material episode by episode in its Trading Course series, and Trading Course 003 is the entry-focused instalment. Follow along at Instagram @tradesbysci for the breakdowns that sit between the lessons.

Questions & answers

What does ICC mean in trading?

ICC stands for Indication, Correction, Continuation. Indication shows which side price is targeting, the correction is the pullback into the area the move came from, and the continuation is the resumption that confirms the entry. It is a sequence for timing entries rather than a signal indicator.

Why do I keep getting stopped out even when my direction is right?

The most common cause is entering during the indication instead of waiting for the correction to finish. The pullback is part of the setup, not a failure of it, and entering early puts the stop where normal retracement will hit it. Waiting for the continuation usually gives a tighter invalidation level and a better price.

Can this entry method be used on XAUUSD and during low-volume sessions?

Yes. The structure applies to any liquid instrument, but gold moves in wider ranges, so the correction and the stop distance have to be adjusted to its volatility. Low-volume sessions can actually be easier, because there is less noise to process and fewer conflicting signals to react to.

How important is risk management compared to the entry itself?

Risk management matters more. A perfect entry with oversized positions still damages an account, while a mediocre entry with fixed risk per trade is survivable and repeatable. Traders who return to this material after a drawdown usually report that the method worked and their sizing did not.

Source: How I Find My Trading Entries | Trading Course 003 · Markdown version

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