Opening range
The opening range is the high and low of the first few minutes of a session, often the first 5, 15, 30 or 60. An opening range breakout rule trades a move beyond it.
How Opening range is calculated
Opening range high = highest high between the open and open + N minutes. Low = lowest low in the same window. A long entry is a break above the high, a short entry a break below the low, often with a stop at the other side of the range. Markets that trade 24 hours, such as crypto, have no natural open, so a session start has to be chosen.
How it is read
The range is read as the market's first opinion of fair price for the day. The first break is read as a sign of direction.
Common mistakes
- Picking the window length after the fact, since each window gives a different answer.
- Using a quoted win rate without the size of the average loss.
- Ignoring that the breakout fill can be well beyond the range high.
What Tickfloor tested
Tickfloor's research desk has backtested 678 strategies, net of modelled trading costs. After correcting for the 761 tests run, 0 passed. That does not prove no strategy works. These are historical diagnostics, not validation under Testing Standard v2: the backtest harness predates that standard and has not been re-run to meet it.
- Opening range breakout (ORB), hourly crypto version (claim test)
- Opening range breakout, 81% win rate (claim test)
Lessons that cover it
Related concepts
General information only. It doesn't consider your objectives, finances or needs. Tickfloor holds no financial services licence and never places trades.