Initial Balance & Opening Types

The first hour's range and what the open tells you.

The Initial Balance (IB) is the range of the first hour of trade. Combined with the opening type, it frames the day's likely character early.

Opening types

Open Drive (OD) — one-directional from the bell; most conviction.
Open Test Drive (OTD) — probes the other way, then drives.
Open Rejection Reverse (ORR) — pushes one way, gets rejected, reverses.
Open Auction (OA) — rotational and undecided; least conviction.

IB width

A Small / Normal / Wide IB offers tradeable breakouts of IB High/Low; a Very Wide IB is best avoided. Since breakouts often fail, confirm them with order flow — imbalance, absorption, trapped traders — before committing.

We wrote a full blog on this — “Trade the Opening Types or the Initial Balance Types?” — in the AlgoPloy Blog.