ICT IPDA — The Interbank Price Delivery Algorithm Explained
IPDA — the Interbank Price Delivery Algorithm — is ICT's model of how price is actually delivered in the market. Understanding IPDA reveals that price movement is algorithmic, not random, and follows specific data range rules.
The Interbank Price Delivery Algorithm (IPDA) is ICT's conceptual model for how price is programmatically delivered in the forex and equity markets. The premise is that price movement is not random — it is governed by an algorithm that follows specific rules about where price must go, when it must go there, and what price levels it must interact with before continuing. Understanding the IPDA framework removes the randomness from your market perception and replaces it with a structured, logical understanding of how price delivery works.
The IPDA Data Ranges
The IPDA operates on three specific lookback data ranges: the 20-day, 40-day, and 60-day data ranges. These ranges represent the reference periods the algorithm uses to identify the key price levels it needs to interact with. The algorithm looks back 20 trading days, 40 trading days, and 60 trading days to find the highs and lows within each range — these are the levels the IPDA is programmed to eventually reach and interact with.
Practically: mark the 20-day high and low, 40-day high and low, and 60-day high and low on your daily chart. These six levels are the primary external range liquidity targets for the IPDA. Price is algorithmically delivered to interact with these levels in sequence — working from the nearest to the furthest, sweeping each one as a liquidity target before moving to the next.
How IPDA Delivers Price
The IPDA does not deliver price randomly between these levels. It follows the AMD framework: accumulate a position, manipulate price in the wrong direction to collect liquidity, then distribute toward the target level. This same AMD pattern plays out at every timeframe scale — from the intraday (using Killzone timing) to the multi-week (using IPDA data ranges as targets).
The sequence: identify the current 20/40/60-day data range. Determine which boundary (high or low) is likely the next target based on the weekly and monthly bias. The algorithm will deliver price to that boundary, interacting with all the PD Arrays along the way. After reaching the boundary and sweeping the liquidity, the algorithm recalibrates and begins the next AMD cycle toward the next data range boundary.
IPDA and the Quarterly Shifts
IPDA delivery occurs within quarterly shifts — each quarter of the year (Q1: Jan-Mar, Q2: Apr-Jun, Q3: Jul-Sep, Q4: Oct-Dec) has a primary directional delivery. Within each quarter, the algorithm sequentially targets the 20, 40, and 60-day range levels. By understanding the quarterly shift direction and the current data range target, you can project the likely price path for the coming weeks.
- diamondMark the 20/40/60-day highs and lows on your daily chart every week.
- diamondIdentify the quarterly shift direction (which direction has the algorithm been delivering in since the quarter began?).
- diamondThe nearest unswept data range level in the quarterly shift direction is your medium-term target.
- diamondUse this target to set your weekly and daily DOL — the IPDA target is the anchor for all shorter-timeframe analysis.
- diamondWhen all three data range levels in one direction have been swept, expect a larger reversal as the algorithm shifts delivery to the opposite direction for the next quarterly cycle.
IPDA analysis is the highest level of ICT top-down analysis — the macro framework within which all shorter-timeframe analysis occurs. Before doing your weekly analysis, spend 10 minutes on the daily chart marking the 20/40/60-day ranges. Knowing which data range level is the current algorithmic target gives every weekly and daily trade a larger structural context that dramatically improves your conviction and your ability to hold trades to their full target.