An opening range breakout defines a high and low from the first minutes of a session, then trades a break of that range. The premise is that the opening auction establishes the day's initial balance, and a decisive move beyond it tends to continue.
- 1Opening range established
- 2Break with range expansion
What the engine actually checks
“Looks like one” is not a rule. Detection requires every hard criterion and scores the confluences — fail a hard criterion and it is not this setup, it is a hope with a nickname.
Hard criteria — all required
- ▪A defined opening window — 5, 15 or 30 minutes from the session open, chosen in advance and not after the fact.
- ▪A close beyond the range boundary rather than a wick through it.
- ▪The break occurring within the first two hours — later breaks are a different, weaker setup.
Confluences — weighted, not required
- ▫Range width within a normal band relative to recent average — abnormally wide ranges break badly.
- ▫Expanding volume on the break.
- ▫Higher-timeframe bias agreeing with the break direction.
- ▫No tier-1 release scheduled inside the window.
Trading it
- 1Where you are wrongThe opposite side of the opening range. That is a wide stop by intraday standards and it is the correct one — placing it just inside the range instead puts it in the exact zone the setup expects price to retest, which converts a working trade into a stopped one.
- 2EntryOn the close beyond the range boundary. The retest variant waits for price to return to the boundary and hold it, which trades fewer opportunities for a materially tighter invalidation and is generally the better version for anyone sizing off the stop.
- 3ObjectiveA common convention projects the range width from the breakout point; the structural alternative targets the prior session high or low. The second is usually the better objective because it is where liquidity actually rests.
Worked example — real numbers
range width 50 projected 2.5× from the break; stop at the opposite side of the range. A valid formation offering under about 1.5R is still a valid formation and still not worth taking — valid and worth it are different questions.
Size this trade against your account →The scoreboard
Resolution by grade, market and timeframe — because a single blended number would let strong contexts carry weak ones, which is how every invented “success rate” in this category is constructed.
| Grade | Market | Timeframe | Resolution | Sample |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | Indices | 1m–5m | collecting | no resolved sample yet |
| A | Indices | 15m | collecting | no resolved sample yet |
| A | Equities | 1m–5m | collecting | no resolved sample yet |
| A | Equities | 15m | collecting | no resolved sample yet |
| A | FX | 1m–5m | collecting | no resolved sample yet |
| A | FX | 15m | collecting | no resolved sample yet |
| B | Indices | 1m–5m | collecting | no resolved sample yet |
| B | Indices | 15m | collecting | no resolved sample yet |
| B | Equities | 1m–5m | collecting | no resolved sample yet |
| B | Equities | 15m | collecting | no resolved sample yet |
| B | FX | 1m–5m | collecting | no resolved sample yet |
| B | FX | 15m | collecting | no resolved sample yet |
| C | Indices | 1m–5m | collecting | no resolved sample yet |
| C | Indices | 15m | collecting | no resolved sample yet |
| C | Equities | 1m–5m | collecting | no resolved sample yet |
| C | Equities | 15m | collecting | no resolved sample yet |
| C | FX | 1m–5m | collecting | no resolved sample yet |
| C | FX | 15m | collecting | no resolved sample yet |
Where this traps people
Drop your chart and the engine checks it against the same hard criteria listed above — the ones it uses on every scan. First read is free and needs no account.
Questions traders actually ask
- What is the opening range breakout strategy?
- Define a high and low from the first 5, 15 or 30 minutes of a session, then trade a decisive break of that range with the opposite side as invalidation. The premise is that the opening auction sets an initial balance that a real move departs from.
- What is the best opening range length?
- Shorter ranges give more signals and more false breaks; longer ones give fewer and cleaner. Fifteen minutes is the common compromise. What matters most is choosing before the session rather than picking whichever window makes the current chart look tradeable.
- Does the ORB work in forex?
- Yes, but the relevant open is the session open rather than a calendar day — London for most majors, New York for dollar pairs during the US window. Applying an equities-market clock to FX measures a window where nothing happens.
- Where does the stop go on an opening range breakout?
- The opposite side of the range. It is wider than intraday traders like, and tightening it into the range puts the stop exactly where the setup expects price to probe on the retest.
- How many ORB attempts should you take per day?
- One per side at most. The second attempt after a failed break is where most opening-range losses concentrate, because by then the session has told you it is not trending and the setup assumes it is.
Learn it · scan for it
More in Strategies
Find a opening range breakout on your own chart
The criteria above are the ones the engine runs. Point it at a symbol you care about and see whether what you are looking at actually qualifies — free, and without an account.
Grade a chart free