Illuin SMC

Hi

I trade using the Smart Money Concept (SMC) approach. Focus is on EURUSD, GBPUSD, Dow Jones, and NASDAQ.
Trade during the New York session.

Dow Jones Index — Long setup

D1
Price reacted from the 0.5–0.62 zone and a bullish imbalance, forming a pin bar with a close at the high. Long bias remains, target — upper boundary of the trading range and new highs.
H1
Price closed above a bearish imbalance after NY took London’s low. Reaction from a strong bullish imbalance confirmed the long scenario.
M5
Made a mistake when measuring 50% (TradingView glitch), so the entry was later than it should have been. Stop-loss was placed not behind NY low (which swept London low) but behind the imbalance zone to achieve a better RR.
Result
In NY session a liquidity pool was formed. Expected price to take it and then continue the main scenario. Moved stop (red line) behind 0.62, assuming liquidity would be grabbed and price would move higher. The market did exactly that — cleared the pool and tagged my stop.
Maybe the position should’ve been moved to breakeven overnight, but the logic of placing the stop behind 0.62 was still correct.

Dow Jones
D1
Earlier reaction from the 0.5–0.62 zone and a bullish imbalance. Main scenario — continuation to update the highs.
H1
Price is reacting from an hourly imbalance (not the strongest, but still relevant). Bullish order flow supports the move, with clear work around liquidity.
M5
Before the news, price swept London’s low and went deeper into the hourly imbalance. Then a structure break occurred: close above the previous swing confirmed the shift. Entry was taken on the retest after the break.

Target — last week’s high.
Stop-loss — below New York’s low.

Result
Super quick stop hit

Good day,
NASDAQ

D1
After a false close above the bearish imbalance, price went down to grab liquidity and is now bouncing back. Bias remains bullish, target — retest of the previous swing high.
H1
Structure broke to the upside. London swept Asia’s high without follow-through, Frankfurt took the low and pushed price higher. Ideal scenario — sweep of London/Asia lows with a dip into the bullish imbalance before continuation upward.

M5
That’s what I was looking for. NY swept London’s highs and made a sharp pullback. Expecting a short-term move down to clear London/Asia lows and test the bullish imbalance, then continuation long. Entry planned on the retrace to 50% of imbalance, targeting London’s low (not being greedy with RR).

Result — moved stop to BE before the news, got taken out.

EURUSD
D1
Price took the consolidation low, failed to break highs immediately, but then pushed higher. Currently retracing from the high, with the main target at PDH.
H1
Reaction from a bullish imbalance. Asia in consolidation, Frankfurt initiated the move up. London hit a bearish imbalance, made a correction, but eventually closed above it — confirming bullish strength. New York extended the move higher.
Drawback: liquidity pool remains below.
M5
During NY, the local London consolidation minimum was swept, followed by an impulsive move up. Entry from the midpoint of the bullish imbalance, stop behind 0.62 / imbalance. Had to improvise a bit to get a decent RR (normally place stops behind liquidity sweep / range, but that would’ve given <1:1).

Result
Closed with a partial loss during NY lunch — too many imbalances left to be tested.

EURUSD

D1: Price is near yearly highs, clearly aiming to retest the July high. Solid target. Last week’s bullish imbalance was tested and reacted strongly to the upside. Break of bearish structure confirmed transition into bullish — overall context supports longs.
H1: Signs of strong bullish order flow are visible.
M5: News event swept liquidity and completely filled the 15M imbalance, from which price quickly bounced up — clear manipulation. Structure break confirmed, move is impulsive.
Plan: Long from the mid of bullish imbalance and trading range. Stop at the start of TR. Target — PDH. RR around 1.8.

Dow Jones

D1
Yesterday a pin-bar was formed, suggesting a test of the Previous Day Low (PDL).
H1
Price reacted from an inversion zone after sweeping liquidity, confirming the short scenario.
M5
Price rejected the H1 imbalance and formed an inversion. After closing below a small H1 imbalance, a new range was drawn. Entry from the 50% level, stop above the inversion, target at PDL.

D1:
Price is at yearly highs, in a zone of bullish imbalance.
H1:
Price tested the hourly imbalance and swept the Previous Day Low (PDL) along with London’s low.
M5 (Entry):
London’s low + PDL were swept. A complete fill of the hourly imbalance occurred, and inversion plus structure break were confirmed. The move upward was impulsive, with no major news in the background. Higher timeframes support the bullish scenario.
Result:
Closed manually with a loss of –0.5 RR because the price moved against the position and the bears clearly had the edge. Later the price would have triggered the original stop, so early exit was correct.