The London session (3:00 AM - 8:00 AM EST) is notorious for setting the daily high or daily low of currency pairs. In this breakdown, we examine a short setup taken on GBPUSD following a clean sweep of the London Session High during NY session opening.

Framing the Context

Before NY session open, GBPUSD had printed a London session high at 1.2745. The daily bias was bearish, with a significant higher timeframe weekly imbalance resting below current price.

NYC Open Sweep

At 8:30 AM EST, NY volume entered the market. Price was driven upwards in a rapid stop-hunt, sweeping the London session high by 5 pips to tap buy-side liquidity before immediately reversing and closing back inside the range.

Execution Checklist

  1. London High Sweep: Cleared buy-stops at 1.2745.
  2. Shift in Structure: A 1-minute displacement candle closed below the NY open level, shifting structure to bearish.
  3. Entry: Sell limit placed at the NY opening imbalance (1.2735).
  4. Stop Loss: Placed 2 pips above the stop-hunt high (1.2752).
  5. Take Profit: Target was the London session low at 1.2680.

The trade delivered a high-probability 1:3.2 Risk-to-Reward setup, demonstrating the power of identifying session liquidity pools.