Auction Market Theory Strategy
A deep-dive masterclass on Auction Market Theory (AMT), teaching traders how markets seek value, create balance, and break into new price discovery phases.
Full video breakdownFree access
Strategy Overview
Auction Market Theory is the foundational framework underlying all modern market profile analysis. This masterclass teaches how markets advertise to attract buyers and sellers, build value areas, and ultimately rotate to new price territories when the current range is fully auctioned.
Market Focus
Primarily applied to futures markets where Volume Profile and Market Profile data is cleanest — ES, NQ, and CL. The concepts are universal and can be applied to any liquid market including forex and crypto.
Timeframes
Analysis is done on daily and weekly charts to identify macro auction ranges. Intraday profiles on 30-minute and 1-hour charts provide session-level value areas and Point of Control for day trading setups.
Core Idea
Price is always either in a balanced auction (range) or in a one-sided auction (trend). The trader’s job is to identify which phase the market is in and trade accordingly — fading the extremes in ranges or joining breakouts from balance.
Market Conditions
Range conditions favor mean-reversion trades from Value Area High/Low back to the Point of Control. Trend conditions favor breakout trades when price leaves the established value area and begins single-print discovery.
Strategy Setups
Setup 1: VA Fade — price reaches Value Area High/Low with no inventory shift, fade back to POC. Setup 2: Balance Breakout — price breaks above/below multi-day balance area with high volume, enter continuation.
Trade Breakdown
Stop placed at the invalidation of the auction thesis (e.g., return inside balance on a breakout trade). Target is the opposing Value Area extreme or prior day’s POC. Risk 1–1.5% per trade.
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This page is for educational purposes only and is not investment advice. Trading involves substantial risk of loss. Past performance and any figures mentioned in strategy names are not a guarantee of future results.