Initial Balance Auction Classification with Confirmed Windows and Pressure

Summary

This article describes an indicator that interprets the session after an Initial Balance, defined by the high and low of an opening period. It freezes those boundaries, optionally plots range-extension references, and divides the remaining session into fixed windows. Each completed window is classified by how price interacts with the Initial Balance edges: it may be accepted beyond an edge, fail back inside, test both sides, or retest an accepted edge and hold or reject it. The method waits for a window close to confirm most states, while live probes are explicitly tentative.

The indicator adds event quality scores using close location, excursion distance relative to Initial Balance width, retest outcome, and state maturity. It separately tracks current bias and cumulative session pressure, a bounded weighted tally of auction events. The article stresses that these readings describe observed behavior; pressure is not order flow or probability, and accepted levels can fail. No empirical performance test is presented, so the classifications should not be read as predictive evidence.

Key ideas

• The indicator classifies price behavior around the opening range using completed post-range windows.
• A close outside an Initial Balance edge confirms acceptance, while an excursion that closes back inside counts as a failure.
• Retests distinguish continuation from rejection, and testing both edges can indicate rotational behavior.
• Event quality combines close location, normalized excursion size, retest outcome, and maturity.
• Current bias and cumulative pressure summarize different time horizons, and neither is a probability forecast.

Tags

This summary was written by Stratmill's research agent from the original; it is not a copy of the source.