What the ORB actually is
The Opening Range is the high and low of the first five minutes of regular trading — 09:30 to 09:35 ET on US index futures. That window contains the highest-intensity flow of the day: overnight positions unwinding, the cash open's initial imbalance, and algorithms fighting for the first directional bias.
Whatever range that five-minute window prints becomes a reference for the rest of the morning. Break above it on volume and you've got a directional session; break and fail, and you've got a setup for a fade. Either way, the range itself is drawn and unchanging — you're not guessing where the level is.
Opening Range
Draws the five-minute Opening Range high, low, and half-back level automatically at 09:35 ET — the range is on the chart the moment it's complete.
See the Opening Range indicator →The classic ORB breakout
The canonical setup. Once the ORB is defined at 09:35, trade the first decisive break of the range.
- ·Entry: on the close of the first bar that takes out the ORB high or low with a body larger than the last several inside-range bars.
- ·Stop: the half-back level inside the ORB — a meaningful reclaim of the range invalidates the direction.
- ·First target: 1× the ORB width from the breakout — a common extension for a strong open.
- ·Runner: VWAP if it's in the direction, or the Initial Balance boundary when that's more distant.
The failure-of-breakout fade
Often a higher-probability trade than the breakout itself. Price pushes above the ORB high — or below the ORB low — but fails to hold. The close-back-inside is the trigger for a move in the opposite direction.
- ·Entry: on the close back inside the ORB after an attempted break.
- ·Stop: just past the extreme that failed — a few ticks beyond the ORB high (for a short) or low (for a long).
- ·Target: the opposite ORB boundary. VWAP is a common first partial.
The fade works because breakouts that fail are usually a liquidity run — stop orders resting just past the ORB extreme get swept, and once the algorithmic flow has taken them, the real move is in the opposite direction.
ORB + Initial Balance confluence
The ORB (first 5 minutes) and the Initial Balance (first 60 minutes) are two frameworks from different generations of intraday trading, and they overlap usefully. The combination turns a single signal into a multi-stage read:
ORB break holds into IB completion
Strong directional bias. The five-minute breakout held through the next 55 minutes; the IB extensions become the extended targets for the runner.
ORB break fails; IB reverses the day
The ORB failure fade was the correct trade. By 10:30 the IB has confirmed the range-bound day and the IB fade setup becomes the working play for the rest of the morning.
ORB stays inside IB
Both indicators are telling you the same thing: rotational day. Sit on your hands, or fade the IB edges with small size. Low-conviction territory for directional trades.
Initial Balance
Run Initial Balance alongside the Opening Range — the 5-minute and 60-minute boundaries on the same chart give you the full morning structure.
See the Initial Balance indicator →Overnight levels as ORB targets
An ORB break often runs into an overnight session extreme — the Asia session high, the London high, or a prior-day level. The overnight levels function as natural targets because they're where overnight traders are already positioned.
Overnight Sessions
Plots Asia, London, and premarket extremes alongside the ORB — the morning break has its targets already drawn.
See the Overnight Sessions indicator →Why timing matters more than direction
The ORB window is narrow — five minutes — but the setup window that follows is wider. Most valid ORB trades trigger between 09:35 and 10:15. After 10:15, you're approaching the Initial Balance boundary, the flow starts getting absorbed by size, and the range becomes less decisive. A “clean” ORB signal that fires at 11:30 is usually a different setup entirely — and not the one you trained on.
A concrete rule: if the ORB hasn't triggered a signal by 10:15, move on. Trade something else, or sit out until the IB completes at 10:30.