The Opening Range Breakout

The ORB is one of the simplest day-trading setups to learn: mark the high and low of the first few minutes after the market opens, then trade a clean break out of that range with a defined stop and target. Here is how it works — illustrative, not a recommendation to trade it.

Here is the textbook sequence ORB traders describe — illustrative, not a recommendation to trade any of it:

1. 1
   Mark the opening range

   When the session opens (9:30 AM ET — the US cash/RTH open most index-futures ORB traders anchor to), watch the first 5, 15, or 30 minutes. The high and low of that window are the opening range. Draw both lines on the chart.

2. 2
   Wait for the range to finish

   Do nothing until the window closes. The most common beginner mistake is entering inside the range before it's even formed. Patience here is most of the edge.

3. 3
   Trade the break

   A clean move and close above the range high is a potential long; below the range low, a potential short. Some traders enter on the break, others wait for price to retest the line and hold.

4. 4
   Define stop and target before you enter

   Traders typically place the stop on the opposite side of the range (or a fixed number of points), with a target like the range height projected from the breakout, or a fixed reward-to-risk such as 2R. The discipline point is to decide both first — never after.

5. 5
   Size to a fixed dollar risk

   The disciplined approach is to pick a dollar amount you're willing to lose on the trade first, then let the entry-to-stop distance decide the contract count — not the other way around. On NQ each point is $20 per contract; on micro MNQ it's $2.