You've probably seen the charts. Those jagged green and red lines that look more like a heart monitor than a path to financial freedom. If you've spent even five minutes in the world of retail trading, especially within the Inner Circle Trader (ICT) ecosystem, you know the name. End of the Day with Ray isn't just a catchy YouTube title; it’s a specific ritual. It’s a post-market autopsy that separates the people who actually make money from the ones who just gamble away their rent.
Trading is lonely. It's just you and a flickering screen. Most people lose. Honestly, they lose because they close their laptop the second the 4:00 PM bell rings and try to forget the pain of a red day.
Ray doesn't do that.
The "End of the Day" (EOD) review is a cornerstone of the ICT mentorship community. It’s the practice of going back through the price action of the last 24 hours to find the "Fingerprints of Smart Money." When people talk about End of the Day with Ray, they are usually referring to Ray's specific way of breaking down the London and New York sessions to see where the liquidity was taken and where the market makers moved the price. It’s about hindsight. But not the useless kind.
What is End of the Day with Ray Really About?
People get this wrong. They think the "End of the Day" review is about finding trades they missed so they can feel bad about themselves. That's a waste of time. Ray's approach is about pattern recognition. Your brain is a supercomputer, but it needs data. It needs to see the same setup—the Judas Swing, the Fair Value Gap, the Turtle Soup—thousands of times before it can spot them in real-time.
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Think about it this way. A professional athlete watches game film. They don't watch it to change the score of a game they already played. They watch it to see how the defense reacted to a specific play. That's exactly what End of the Day with Ray is for the forex or futures trader.
Most of the sessions focus on the ICT Power of 3. That’s the concept of Accumulation, Manipulation, and Distribution. Ray looks at the daily candle. He asks: Where was the open? Where was the low of the day (the manipulation)? And where was the expansion? If you can't see it after the fact, you'll never see it while the candles are printing.
The Midnight Opening Price
One of the most critical elements Ray emphasizes is the New York Midnight Opening Price. It's a line in the sand. If the market is bullish, you want to be buying below that price. If it's bearish, you sell above it. During an EOD review, you look back and see how many times price dipped below that midnight level just to stop out retail traders before mooning. It happens almost every day. It's spooky once you notice it.
Why Hindsight is Actually Your Best Teacher
Critics call it "backtesting bias." They say it’s easy to find the trade when the right side of the chart is already visible.
They're right. It is easy.
But that’s the point.
If you can't find the setup when it's literally staring you in the face, how are you going to find it when your heart is racing and $500 is on the line? End of the Day with Ray removes the emotion. It lets you see the market for what it is: a programmed algorithm designed to seek liquidity.
Ray often focuses on the "Silver Bullet" sessions. These are specific time windows—like 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM EST—where the market almost always offers a 10-to-15 tick setup. By reviewing these daily, you start to realize the market isn't random. It’s a clock.
You're looking for the "Stop Run."
You're looking for the "Market Structure Shift."
You're looking for the "Displacement."
If you see these three things happen in order at 10:30 AM every Tuesday for three weeks, guess what you're going to do next Tuesday? You're going to trade it.
The Psychological Edge of the Review
Most traders are stuck in a cycle of "Hope and Pray." They enter a trade and hope it goes their way. Ray’s EOD method kills hope. It replaces it with expectation based on data.
There's a specific kind of calm that comes over a trader who has done the work. When you've seen a "Liquidity Purge" happen 500 times on a chart during your evening reviews, you don't panic when it happens to your live position. You realize it's just the market doing what the market does.
Ray’s videos often highlight the mistakes. He doesn't just show the winners. He shows the "SMT Divergence" that should have warned you to stay out. He shows the "Higher Time Frame" level that acted as a brick wall. This is where the real learning happens. It’s the nuance. It’s the stuff the "Get Rich Quick" gurus never talk about because it’s actually hard work.
Dealing with the "Why"
Why did the Euro dump at 8:30 AM?
Was it news?
Was it a run on the previous day's high?
End of the Day with Ray answers the "Why." When you understand the "Why," the "How" becomes a lot easier. You stop blaming "the whales" or "the brokers" and start realizing you just missed a clear technical signal.
Common Misconceptions About the ICT Method
People love to hate on ICT and the practitioners like Ray. They say the terminology is too complex. They say a "Fair Value Gap" is just a "hidden gap" or "imbalance."
Honestly? Who cares?
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The terminology is just a language. If calling it a "Fair Value Gap" helps you identify a high-probability entry point, then it’s a valid term. The End of the Day with Ray sessions prove that the language works because it describes recurring phenomena in the price delivery algorithm.
Another misconception is that you need to be at your desk 24/7. Ray actually preaches the opposite. By reviewing the day, you realize that most of the "meat" of the move happens in very small, predictable windows. You don't need to trade for eight hours. You need to trade for ninety minutes. The EOD review helps you identify which ninety minutes matter for your specific pair.
Practical Steps for Your Own EOD Review
If you want to start doing this yourself, you don't need fancy software. You just need TradingView and a little bit of discipline.
- Mark the Key Times: Draw a vertical line at 12:00 AM (Midnight) and 8:30 AM EST. These are your anchors.
- Identify the Draw on Liquidity: Look at the chart before the session started. Where were the "Equal Highs" or "Equal Lows"? That’s where the market was going.
- Find the Displacement: Look for a violent move that left a gap in price. That’s your Fair Value Gap (FVG).
- Annotate Everything: Don't just look at it. Write it down. Use the text tool on the chart. "Price swept sell-side liquidity here." "Market structure shifted here."
- Save the Screenshot: Build a playbook. If you do this for 30 days, you will have a 30-page manual of exactly how the market moves.
This is the secret. It isn't a secret indicator. It isn't a "holy grail" bot. It’s just the boring, repetitive work of looking at what already happened so you can predict what might happen next.
Final Actionable Insights
Success in trading isn't about being the smartest person in the room. It's about being the most prepared. End of the Day with Ray is a masterclass in preparation.
Stop looking for the next "strategy" on TikTok.
Stop buying indicators that promise a 90% win rate.
Start sitting down every night at 6:00 PM or 8:00 PM and looking at the candles from that day.
Ask yourself: Did I see this setup forming? If not, why? What was I looking at instead?
Over time, the "fuzziness" of the candles will start to clear. You'll start to see the signatures of the algorithm. You'll see the traps before they spring. That is the only way to move from a retail "loser" to a consistently profitable trader. The work is done when the market is closed. That’s where the money is actually made.
Go back to your charts. Open the 15-minute timeframe. Find today's New York Midnight price. See what happened when the market touched it during the London session. Do it every day. No excuses.