Strategy guide
ORB Trading Strategy Guide
These are the exact rules the ORB Sniper terminal runs on your chosen session and symbol: the opening range, the trade-mode classifier that decides between a breakout and an inner-range 50% trade, the bias filter, momentum confirmation, the retest entry, four stop-placement modes, and the 1:1 / 2R / 3R exit ladder.
Build the opening range
The opening range is the high and low of the first minutes of the session. Nothing is traded inside it during a breakout setup — that early chop is noise. The terminal supports seven range lengths:
The range high becomes the long trigger and the range low the short trigger. A range too small to pay for a stop is skipped, so you never take a trade where the stop is larger than the range itself.
Pick the trade mode — breakout or inner-range
The strategy hunts one of two setups per session, controlled by the trade mode setting:
- Auto (default) — the Trade Mode Classifier reads the range width vs the 14-day ATR, relative volume, VWAP position and failed-breakout behaviour, then locks the session into either breakout or inner-range mode.
- Breakout — only candles that close outside the range can trigger a signal.
- Inner-range — while price stays inside the range, the terminal trades the 50% midpoint: a cross above the median from below is a long (stop at the range low, target the range high); a cross below is a short (stop at the range high, target the range low).
Only one mode is ever active, so breakout and inner-range signals can never fire on the same session — no double signals.
Read the higher-timeframe bias
A break in the direction of the prevailing trend has a much higher win rate. Before any entry the engine checks three bias inputs:
- VWAP — price above the session VWAP favours longs; below favours shorts.
- Market structure — higher highs and higher lows confirm longs; lower highs and lower lows confirm shorts.
- Daily bias — above the prior session close tilts the day bullish; below it bearish.
With the bias filter on, conflicting signals mean a no-trade day — the single biggest reason good ORB traders avoid the losers that destroy a prop-firm account.
Confirm the entry candle
A wick poking through the range is not a breakout. The candle must close outside the range, and that close must show real expansion. Every entry candle is scored on three momentum checks:
A candle with a big rejection wick or thin volume is a failed break — stand down and wait for the next one.
Enter on the retest, not the extension
Chasing the breakout candle pushes your stop far from your entry. The higher-quality entry is the retest: after the break, wait for price to pull back into the broken level — or into the fair value gap (FVG) the displacement left behind — and enter when that zone holds.
The retest is confirmed when price tags the zone and closes back in the breakout direction. If price closes back inside the opening range, the setup is voided. A near-miss alert can also fire when price comes within a configurable distance (percent or ticks) of the entry zone.
Place the stop and size the trade
Risk is fixed per trade, not guessed. Four stop-placement modes are available in the strategy settings:
- Conservative (default) — beyond the far side of the opening range.
- Aggressive — beyond the breakout candle's wick; tighter, more risk of being run.
- OR-mid — at the 50% midpoint of the opening range.
- Swing — beyond the most recent structural swing high / low, even inside the range when that is where structure sits.
Contracts = risk budget ÷ (stop points × point value). Each NQ point is worth $20, each MNQ point $2. The stop distance is capped (60 points by default) and any setup whose math produces fewer than one contract is rejected.
Manage and exit — the 1:1 / 2R / 3R ladder
Every signal ships with a full exit plan. The goal is to remove risk early and let a third of the position run:
When the liquidity-target setting is on, the runner aims at the nearest untouched session level (yesterday's NY, Asia or London high/low) instead of a fixed 3R — anything nearer than 1R is skipped. Once the first partial is taken the trade can no longer lose. Never widen a stop, never add to a loser.
Liquidity sweeps — the smart-money layer
A liquidity sweep is a quick poke beyond a prior-session high or low (yesterday's NY, Asia overnight or London overnight) that grabs resting stops and reverses. The terminal only counts a sweep when there is a real wick beyond the level and a real close back inside.
Sweeps are informational by default — shown on every signal so you can verify the context. The sweep filter setting can upgrade them to a rule:
Gold Fibonacci continuation (GC / MGC)
On gold contracts only, the terminal also hunts continuation entries: after the impulse leg, price reliably pulls back into a Fibonacci retracement of that leg before continuing. The anchor swing is measured on the 4h chart first, then the 1h (auto mode), or a fixed timeframe you pick.
The Fib engine has its own master on/off switch and only runs on GC and MGC — it never affects NQ or MNQ signals.
Session windows (ET)
The same playbook runs on three sessions, each with its own open and flat-by time. You switch sessions manually in the terminal:
Asia ranges are typically smaller, so size down. London often provides the cleanest sweeps heading into the New York open.
Risk management parameters
The default parameters the terminal uses — all editable in the strategy settings:
When the NQ stop would breach the risk budget, the terminal recommends MNQ so the same dollar risk holds at a smaller point value. After the daily loss limit or a losing streak, new signals are blocked until the next session.
Ready to see these signals live?
The ORB Sniper terminal runs this exact playbook on your chosen session and symbol, alerting you the moment a setup meets every rule above.
Open the signal terminal