Initial Balance: opening range, IB and extensions on any chart

Initial Balance marks the levels that the first part of the trading session leaves behind. For every day on the chart it tracks the pre-market high and low, the opening range, the initial balance with its midpoint, the running session high and low, and a ladder of IB extensions above and below the range. Every level is calculated from one-minute data, so the lines sit at the same prices on a time chart, a tick chart or a Renko chart.

What the Initial Balance indicator is

The initial balance is the price range traded during the first stretch of the regular session. By default that is the first 60 minutes after a 09:30 open. The opening range is the same idea over a shorter window, 30 minutes by default. Both windows, the session times and the pre-market start are settings, so you can fit them to the market you trade.

The indicator keeps a separate record for each trading day: the open price, the opening range high and low, the initial balance high and low, the session high and low, and whether the IB high or IB low has been broken since the IB window closed. The current pre-market high and low are tracked from Premarket Start (04:00 by default) up to the session open.

All of this is built from a one-minute series that the indicator requests next to your chart bars. On a one-minute or faster time chart it reads the chart bars directly. That is why the levels do not shift when you change the bar type.

How to read it on the chart

The lines are drawn beneath the candles, from the session open to the right. Each one ends in a text label. With Show Price on, the label includes the price. With Show Range on, the high and low labels also show the size of the range in points.

The IB high and low change their look as the day develops. While the IB window is still open they are drawn as thick dashed developing lines. Once the window closes they switch to the virgin style and stay that way until price trades through the level. From the bar that breaks it, the line continues in the broken style. A glance at the line tells you whether that side of the range has been tested yet.

Extensions appear as soon as the IB window has closed for a session. All configured levels are drawn at once, whether or not price has moved toward them, so you can plan around them early in the day.

When the opening range is shown, the IB lines appear once the opening range window is complete. With Show OR switched off they are drawn from the open.

Three ways traders use it

The statistics card lists Days, IB Broken, IB low Broken, IB high Broken, Avg break IB low and Avg break IB high. The two averages are expressed as a percentage of that day's IB range, which lines up directly with the extension levels.

How to add it in SabrTrader

1. Open a chart of the instrument you trade. Any intraday bar type works. The indicator does not draw on daily or longer time bars.
2. Add the indicator. Open the indicator list, search for Initial Balance and add it. It draws on the price panel.
3. Set the session. Check Session Start, Session End and Premarket Start. The times are read in the time zone your chart displays.
4. Pick what to show. The IB menu on the chart toolbar toggles the pre-market, session high and low, opening range, initial balance, extensions, prices, ranges and the statistics card without opening the settings dialog.
5. Choose the layout. Lines Placement switches between lines that span each session and a compact band of today's levels at the right edge of the chart. Display switches between all days and the current day only.

Settings reference

Every line has its own colour, width and style setting, including separate ones for the developing, virgin and broken IB states and for each of the six extension lines. The filled areas for the opening range, the initial balance and the pre-market each have a colour and an opacity. Those opacities default to 0, so the areas stay hidden until you raise them. Text font, size and colour are settings as well.

Markets and data

Initial Balance needs intraday bars and nothing else. It does not use tick data, order flow or volume. On charts slower than one minute, and on tick, volume, range or Renko charts, it loads a one-minute series for the same instrument from your data feed, so the feed has to supply one-minute history. Rithmic, dxFeed, Databento, IQFeed and Interactive Brokers all work.

The defaults fit US cash hours. For futures, stocks in another region or a different session definition, change the three time settings. The levels are also published as data values (Initial Balance High, Mid and Low, Opening Range High and Low, Pre-market High and Low, Session High and Low, and a Signal State from 0 to 3 that tells you whether the session, the opening range and the initial balance are complete).

Frequently asked questions