Learn Structure Swing Points & the STH/ITH/LTH Hierarchy
Swing Points & the STH/ITH/LTH Hierarchy
Three-candle pivots are the market’s skeleton — every ICT tool is measured from them.
A short-term high (STH) is a simple three-candle fractal: a candle whose high exceeds the highs of its neighbors on both sides; short-term lows mirror this.
The hierarchy nests: an intermediate-term high (ITH) is an STH flanked by lower STHs, and a long-term high (LTH) is an ITH flanked by lower ITHs — the same recursion applies to lows.
This ranking tells you how significant any break or sweep really is: running a short-term high is routine, running a long-term high can re-price the whole range. Structure, liquidity pools, dealing ranges and OTE legs are all built on this swing map.
How to trade it
- Build your levels off confirmed pivots, not live candles — a pivot only confirms one bar after it forms.
- Weight your reactions by swing rank: sweeps of ITH/LTH levels deserve far more attention than STH noise.
Pitfalls
- Acting on unconfirmed pivots that repaint as the next candle prints.
- Treating every minor wiggle as structure — filter by pivot strength on noisy timeframes.
See Swing Points & the STH/ITH/LTH Hierarchy detected live.
The workstation marks it on the chart the moment it prints.