ICT Seek and Destroy Friday — How the Algorithm Behaves Before NFP
Seek and Destroy Friday is the algorithm's behavior when a high-impact news event like NFP is approaching. Understanding this pattern helps you avoid getting trapped and potentially profit from the engineered moves.
ICT Seek and Destroy Friday is a specific market behavior pattern that occurs when a major high-impact economic event — most commonly the Non-Farm Payroll (NFP) report released the first Friday of each month — is approaching. The algorithm, in anticipation of the large volume and volatility that will accompany the news release, engages in a "seek and destroy" pattern: hunting the liquidity on both sides of the market before the news, trapping traders in both directions, and then using the news event to deliver the true directional move.
Why Friday Before NFP Is Different
NFP is released at 8:30 AM New York time on the first Friday of each month. It is one of the highest-volatility events in the forex and equity markets — the kind of event that produces moves of 50-150 pips in seconds on major forex pairs. In the hours before the release, institutional traders are positioning, hedging, and accumulating. The algorithm takes advantage of this positioning period to collect liquidity from both sides before the event delivers the real move.
The "seek and destroy" characterization comes from the algorithm's behavior of systematically hunting the stop orders on both sides of the pre-NFP range. It will run stops to the upside, trapping shorts. Then it will run stops to the downside, trapping longs. Both sweeps serve to clean the tape — eliminating as many retail positions as possible before the news-driven delivery begins, ensuring maximum institutional participation in the post-news move.
The Seek and Destroy Pattern
- diamondThursday afternoon/evening: The pre-NFP range begins forming. Price consolidates as traders position before Friday's release.
- diamondFriday 6:00-8:00 AM New York time: The algorithm runs the first sweep. If the daily bias is bullish, the first seek often goes lower — sweeping the Thursday lows and triggering sell stops.
- diamond8:00-8:25 AM: The destroy phase. Having swept one side, price aggressively reverses and takes out the other side of the range — sweeping the Thursday highs.
- diamond8:30 AM NFP release: The true directional move begins from whichever side was swept last. The news acts as the catalyst for the distribution phase.
- diamondPost-release: The true direction is revealed. Traders who were not stopped out in the double-sweep but correctly identified the post-sweep direction can ride a significant move.
How to Trade Around Seek and Destroy
The safest approach for most traders is to stay out of the market entirely during the 90 minutes before NFP. The double-sweep pattern is designed to stop out even correctly positioned traders through the sheer violence of the moves. Attempting to predict which side will be swept first and in what order is speculative.
However, experienced ICT traders can use the pattern by waiting for the second sweep — after both sides have been cleared — to enter in the likely post-news direction. The second sweep often occurs 10-15 minutes before the NFP release and constitutes the final Judas Swing before the real move. Entry after the second sweep, with a stop beyond the sweep extreme, targets the post-NFP delivery.
Other Seek and Destroy Events
While NFP is the most common Seek and Destroy catalyst, the same pattern appears before any tier-1 economic event: FOMC rate decisions, CPI releases, and GDP announcements. Any time the market knows a major news event is coming, the algorithm will seek and destroy the pre-event liquidity before the true delivery.
Mark your economic calendar at the start of every week. Identify any tier-1 news events scheduled that week. On the day of the event, significantly reduce your position sizing or avoid trading altogether during the pre-event period. Your job on Seek and Destroy days is capital preservation, not profit maximization.