The CRT Purge

The rules

1. Candle 1: mark its high and its low. That is the range.
2. The setup: candle 2 trades beyond ONE side of the range.
3. The trigger: candle 2's body closes back inside the range. No close inside, no trade.
4. Direction: purge of the high = short, purge of the low = long.
5. Target: the opposite side of the range; the 50% is the halfway checkpoint.
6. Invalid: an inside bar (takes neither side) or a double purge (takes both sides).

How to mark it

1. Pick the pair: Daily range traded on 4H, or 4H range traded on 15m / 5m.
2. Mark candle 1's high, low and 50%.
3. Wait for candle 2 to sweep one side. Do nothing while it is still open.
4. Body closes back inside: enter at the close, stop above (or below) the purge wick.
5. Target the other side of the range. Best when the purge happens at a key level.

The 1:3 trade

Entry short at the close of the purge candle, back inside the range. Stop just above the purge wick. Target the low of the range candle. Reward is exactly three times the risk.

Before you enter

• Range candle marked: high, low and 50%
• Candle 2 took one side only
• Candle 2's body closed back inside the range
• Stop beyond the purge wick, target the opposite side
• Purge happened at a key level (previous day high/low, HTF gap or block)

Common mistakes

• Entering while candle 2 is still open, on the wick alone
• Selling a high that closed outside the range
• Trading a double purge that took both sides
• Treating an inside bar as a setup
• Mixing 4H key times from different chart sessions (NY 1, 5, 9 AM vs CME 2, 6, 10 AM)

Key terms

• CRT: Candle Range Theory: every candle is a range with two liquidity pools
• Range candle: candle 1, whose high and low define the range
• Purge: candle 2 sweeps one side and closes back inside
• Double purge: candle 2 takes both sides; no clean trade
• Inside bar: candle 2 stays inside the range; nothing taken
• 50%: midpoint of the range; halfway reference for the target
• Key times: 4H candles at 1, 5 and 9 AM New York time
• BSL / SSL: buy stops above highs / sell stops below lows
• Liquidity sweep: price runs a high or low, then reverses
• R:R: reward divided by risk; 1:3 means 3R for 1R risked

The wick is the setup. The close back inside is the trigger.