During the week of September seventeenth to the twenty-fifth, the Nasdaq moved from around 24,755 down to 24,223. This decline offered a clear example of how ICT (Inner Circle Trader) concepts can be used to understand market structure and the flow of liquidity. The move wasn’t a random sell-off—it was the result of how institutions interact with liquidity that builds up at obvious highs and lows.

ICT trading theory is based on the idea that markets move through three repeating phases: accumulation, manipulation, and distribution. In the accumulation phase, large traders quietly build positions when price is relatively stable. Manipulation happens when price temporarily moves beyond key levels to trigger orders or stops from retail traders, creating liquidity for institutions to fill their orders. Distribution is when those larger players exit their positions into strength, usually before a reversal or markdown begins.

During this particular week in September, the Nasdaq showed signs of transition between these phases. In the days leading up to the seventeenth, price moved upward and began forming equal highs around 24,755. This area became a pool of buy-side liquidity—a concentration of buy stops from traders who had short positions, as well as breakout entries from traders expecting higher prices. When price briefly moved above that level, it collected this liquidity. The short-term breakout wasn’t true continuation but part of the manipulation phase. Institutions used that area to execute sell orders at premium prices.

After the liquidity sweep, price began to reject and shift lower. This was an early signal that distribution had started. The market structure changed, showing lower highs and lower lows as momentum turned bearish. On the downside, new pools of sell-side liquidity formed under recent swing lows. These were the stop losses of traders who had entered long positions during the false breakout. As price continued to fall, the market moved toward these areas to collect that sell-side liquidity, completing the next stage of the cycle.

By the time the Nasdaq reached 24,223, the move had covered roughly five hundred points. From an ICT perspective, this decline represented the completion of a typical sequence: the buildup and sweep of buy-side liquidity, the shift in structure confirming distribution, and the targeting of sell-side liquidity below. Each stage reflected institutional behavior designed to capture liquidity efficiently before the next accumulation phase begins.

Understanding buy-side and sell-side liquidity is central to reading these movements. Buy-side liquidity exists above highs where buy stops and breakout orders cluster. Sell-side liquidity exists below lows where stop losses from long positions accumulate. The market naturally moves between these zones because that is where the largest volume of resting orders exists. For institutional participants, these levels provide the liquidity necessary to enter or exit large positions without causing excessive slippage.

The Nasdaq’s decline between September seventeenth and twenty-fifth illustrates this principle in action. The movement from one liquidity pool to another defined the entire week’s structure. For traders applying ICT methods, the key observation wasn’t the drop itself but how and why it occurred. The sweep of the buy-side liquidity above 24,755 created the conditions for distribution. The later drawdown to 24,223 represented the market’s effort to rebalance and fill sell-side inefficiencies.

In summary, this period demonstrates how ICT concepts explain institutional behavior and liquidity flow within a market. By studying where buy-side and sell-side liquidity exist, traders can better understand the path price is likely to take. The Nasdaq’s movement during that week showed the full sequence—from manipulation through distribution to the targeting of sell-side liquidity—offering a practical example of how liquidity governs price action.