What is the AMD model (Power of Three)

A market move is never a straight line. It is always made of legs and corrections. Looked at more closely, after an impulsive leg the market often shifts into an accumulation phase, then runs a sharp counter-trend move — manipulation — and only after that continues in the direction of the dominant trend, the distribution phase.

Accumulation is the phase where a large participant builds a position. Before continuation, available liquidity is taken on purpose — resting stop orders inside the range are triggered, absorbed, and then used to carry price further in the higher-timeframe direction.

How to read the model

Two things matter to read AMD correctly. First, define where the impulse begins and ends — the boundaries of the trading range inside which decisions are made. Second, find the accumulation phase inside that range.

In intraday trading, accumulation usually forms during the Asian session or toward the close of the previous session. The London session — especially on instruments like GER40 — often acts as the manipulation window.

Three arguments for manipulation

To confirm a manipulation phase, we rely on three confluences:

• Imbalance inversion. After a bearish leg a counter imbalance forms. If a genuine buyer is present, that imbalance has to be inverted — which shows the opposing pressure was absorbed and control passed to the buyer.
• V-shaped reclaim. Price returns sharply after the move down. The key criterion is a reclaim of more than 30% of the bearish leg — a sign of deliberate positioning, not a random reaction.
• Higher-timeframe liquidity sweep inside a zone of interest. Price takes liquidity built on a higher timeframe, and does it inside a zone of interest framed by an imbalance. Higher-timeframe liquidity is rarely taken by accident.

When all three are present at once, we treat the move as manipulation and expect distribution as the next phase of the model.

Entry and nuances

The entry is taken after manipulation is confirmed, with the stop placed beyond the swept liquidity and the target at the nearest structure from which the correction started. A zone of interest in the form of an imbalance strengthens the setup but is not a strict requirement: if liquidity has been taken and the arguments confirm the participant's strength, an entry is possible without it.

The AMD model is the entry logic of the FocusProfit methodology. The FocusProfit Trade Model indicator marks ranges and structure on the chart, which makes the accumulation boundaries and the manipulation window easier to spot — but the indicator does not replace understanding the logic, it speeds it up.

See the broader framework in the methodology section, and watch the model applied to live instruments in the market analysis.