Initial Balance

The price range resulting from the market’s trade during the first two 30 minute periods of the regular trading hours session. For the /ES contract, this would be the 9:30 – 10:30am EST period. When the initial balance is relatively narrow, you should expect that it will be “knocked over” at some point in the session and price will extend out of the initial balance. This is called “range extension”. When the balance is wide, then look for the initial balance range to possibly be the range for the entire session. It is common that the highs and lows of the day will be established within the first hour of trade. Look for that to happen more often when the market is in balance or experiencing an Inside DayA day in which the entire range of price action from lows to highs is within or inside the prior day’s range. This pattern in candlestick terms is called “harami” and is a sign of a small pause in the prevailing trend before continuing onward rather than reversing.. When the market starts to trend right away off of the open and continues as such with little balancing anywhere, then there is no initial balance. On days like that, don’t look for the initial balance range to have any meaning.