ICT and SMC (Smart Money Concepts): what the method is about

ICT (Inner Circle Trader) is the name of a trading method and its educational materials, and SMC (Smart Money Concepts) is its simplified, popular version. It assumes that large institutions push price toward clusters of orders, i.e. liquidity, and that their activity leaves recognizable traces on the chart: order blocks, FVGs (fair value gaps) or changes in market structure.

It is one of many methods, not a proven certainty. Its assumptions about the behavior of “big players” are hard to verify, and the concepts are often defined ambiguously, so two people frequently mark different zones on the same chart. Its effectiveness has not been proven in a way that would let you treat it as a rule, so every idea requires your own test and risk management.