Session Timing and Killzones

Time as a filter

SMC practice puts unusual emphasis on when setups form, not just where. The reasoning is simple: institutional activity concentrates around specific windows — the London open, the New York open, and the overlaps — so structural signals printed during those windows carry more participation than identical shapes formed in dead hours. SMC traders call these high-activity windows killzones.

The commonly used windows

• Asian range: the relatively quiet accumulation hours. Its high and low become reference liquidity levels for the day.
• London window (roughly the first hours of the European session): frequently produces the day's first decisive move — sometimes a sweep of the Asian range before the true direction emerges.
• New York window: overlaps London and hosts most major US data releases; often extends or sharply reverses the London move.