Indicator 02

Opening Range Breakout

The first 15 minutes set the range. This study trades the break of it with strict, rule-based filters.

Chart overlay · 5-minute or 15-minute charts · Index futures (ES, NQ) and liquid ETFs

The Opening Range Breakout study locks the first 15 minutes of the session as a range, then signals only clean breaks beyond it plus a tick buffer. It caps signals per side per day, blocks sessions whose opening range is too wide, and draws take-profit levels from the range itself.

What it shows

Opening range high, low and midline, locked after the first 15 minutes (5, 15 or 30, configurable).
Long and short breakout arrows, only on a fresh break beyond the range plus a tick threshold.
Take-profit levels drawn from the range (high plus offset, low minus offset).
A daily cap on signals per side, a signal time window, and a range filter that blocks the whole day when the opening range is too wide.
An info box with the session's numbers: open, range, targets, filter status.

How it reads the market

Most opening-range tools fire on every wiggle. This one trades the concept the way desks do: one clean break, inside a time window, only when the range itself is normal. When the opening range exceeds your filter, the day is marked FILTERED and no signal prints.

Settings

Setting	Default	What it does
Opening range	15 min	How long the range builds before it locks.
Break threshold	1 tick	How far beyond the range price must trade to count.
Signals per side	1 per day	Hard cap against overtrading.
Signal window	until 11:00 ET	No entries after the morning window closes.
Range filter	off	Block the day entirely when the opening range is wider than this.
Target offset	20 points	Where the take-profit lines sit beyond the range.

Everything is an input: colors, thresholds and time windows adjust from the indicator's settings panel, no code needed.

Built-in alerts

Long breakout
Short breakout

Set them once from TradingView's alert dialog and get notified on your phone, no chart-watching required.

Comes with the membership

The whole indicator suite is included with the paid plan, $20/month or $200/year. Subscribe, submit your TradingView username, and the scripts land in your TradingView library.

Get full access

How to add it to your chart

Request access above with your TradingView username (one request covers the whole suite).
We grant it on TradingView, usually within 24 hours; TradingView notifies you.
On your chart, open Indicators → Invite-only scripts and add Opening Range Breakout.

When to use it, and when not to

It earns its place when

You trade the first two hours of the US session on index futures or a liquid ETF.
You want a rule you can follow when the tape is fast and judgement gets expensive.
You accept small losses often in exchange for the occasional trend day.

Leave it off the chart when

The opening range is already enormous. A wide range means the move happened before the bell; the filter blocks the day for exactly this reason.
You trade a name that opens on a gap and drifts. Breakout logic needs a session that resolves, not one that bleeds.
It is the afternoon. The edge in the opening range is in the opening.

Common questions

Why 15 minutes rather than 5 or 30?

Fifteen is the compromise most futures traders land on. Five minutes gives a range so tight that noise breaks it constantly. Thirty gives a range so wide the move is over before you are in. All three are settings here, so you can test which fits your instrument.

Why cap the number of signals per day?

Because an uncapped breakout system will hand you six trades on a chop day and all six will lose. The cap turns the worst sessions into a small, known cost instead of an open-ended one.

What is the volatility filter blocking?

Days where the opening range is unusually wide relative to recent sessions. Statistically those days resolve inside the range far more often than they trend. The filter simply refuses to trade them.

Does opening range breakout still work?

It works in the sense that opening-range extremes still attract orders. It stopped working as a standalone system a long time ago, which is why this version spends most of its rules on when NOT to take the signal.