summary: the initial balance (IB) is the price range during a session's first hour — a key reference for breakout and retracement trading. edgeful offers 2 IB algo variants: the standard IB and the IB breakeven stop. customize your IB timeframe, use retracement data to plan entries, and structure stop/target levels based on historical data.

want a no-prep starting point? the free IB algo playbook (GC) is a gold futures IB playbook. that page is an email sign-up, not a direct download — enter your email under the headline and the playbook is sent to you. no edgeful account required.

IB captures the opening trading range before the market fully develops. most traders monitor the first 60 minutes of a session. for US equities, that's 9:30–10:30 AM ET.

the IB range is measured from the session's highest price to lowest price during that window — not open-to-close. this range acts as your anchor for the entire day's trading. price either breaks out decisively or retraces back into it, and the data tells you how often each happens.

NY session: 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM ET | IB range: 9:30 AM to 10:30 AM ET

London session: 3:00 AM to 11:00 AM ET | IB range: 3:00 AM to 4:00 AM ET

you can customize these times in edgeful. if you trade the globex open at 6:00 PM, set your session and IB accordingly. consistency is everything — same times every day keeps your data clean.

like the ORB algo, the IB algo takes one trade per day per ticker. once the entry fires, the algo is done for that session on that ticker.

edgeful offers 2 IB algo indicators in TradingView:

IB (standard) — the core initial balance strategy. enters on retracement back into the IB range after a breakout. every IB variant works with two take-profit targets, so the position scales out at TP1 and the remainder runs to TP2. this is the version to start with.

IB — breakeven stop — same entry logic and the same two targets as the standard IB. the difference is the stop: when TP1 hits, this variant also moves your stop-loss up to your entry price (break-even), so the remainder can run to TP2 with no risk left on it. the number of targets isn't what separates the two IB variants — both have two. what the stop does at TP1 is.

entry: price breaks out of the IB range, then retraces back into it at your configured retracement level.

TP1 hit: once the trade reaches your first profit target, the algo moves your stop-loss to break-even — your original entry price.

from there: the trade continues running. if price keeps moving in your favor, you profit more. if it reverses, you exit at break-even — zero loss on the remaining position.

the breakeven stop variant works best in trending markets where you want to protect early gains without cutting the trade short. in choppy or mean-reverting conditions, the standard IB with a fixed target may perform better — backtest both to compare.

start with the standard IB. once you're comfortable with IB entry logic and have a working backtest, run the breakeven stop variant on the same instrument and compare profit factor, win rate, and max drawdown in the strategy report. the version with better risk-adjusted returns on your instrument becomes your production setup.

don't run both variants on the same chart — alerts will overlap and create conflicts. pick one per chart/ticker.

IB runs on the NY session (9:30–10:30 ET) and the London session (3:00–4:00 AM ET). if you want to run it on both sessions on the same ticker, the rule is one session per chart tab — not stacked on a single chart. filters also need to be re-tuned per session because London IBs run smaller than NY IBs on the same ticker.

full walkthrough: running IB on 2 sessions — NY and London walkthrough.

the key settings to dial in are the extension targets, midpoint, stop loss, size filters, and entry controls.

if price reaches the first profit target before the retracement fills, the algo cancels the pending entry order. this avoids taking trades after the move has already played out — by the time price comes back to your entry level, the easy gains are already gone and you'd be entering into a faded move.

no entries after this time — even if price reaches the entry level, no trade will fire. filled positions will keep running if they were filled before the cutoff time; the cutoff only blocks new entries, it doesn't force-exit open trades.

the cutoff uses the timezone selected in the session section of the algo settings.

at the end of the session defined in your algo settings, the algo automatically closes any open trade. if TP or SL levels are not hit and time hits the session end, the automation closes the position at market.

this enforces the day-trading structure of the IB algo — no positions held past session close, regardless of where price is.

the retracement % is how deep price has to pull back into the IB range after breaking out before the algo will look for an entry. it's anchored to whichever side of the IB range was broken — not fixed to the high or the low.

a few worked examples to make it concrete:

so the smaller the % value, the shallower the pullback you're requiring before entry. 1% is the tightest — you're catching the breakout almost immediately. larger values wait for a deeper pullback before triggering, which can mean fewer trades but cleaner entries.

the right value depends on your strategy: a smaller % captures more trades but takes worse entries on average; a larger % takes better entries but skips trades where price keeps running without pulling back.

the algo analyzer breaks down your algo's historical performance — trade-by-trade results, drawdown, and win/loss patterns — so you can see exactly what's working before going live.

→ algo analyzer

the fastest starting point is an algo template: prebuilt IB settings per ticker and session, already run through the optimizer. want something tailored to you? run the algo optimizer yourself. it tests thousands (or millions) of setting combinations against historical data and surfaces the best-performing version, then validates the winners on unseen data before you go live.

→ algo optimizer

step 1: open a low-timeframe chart in TradingView (1m to 5m). identify the session open clearly.

step 2: use TradingView's Measure Tool to mark the IB high and low — measure from highest to lowest price during your IB window. this gives you exact price levels.

step 3: note the IB range size. larger ranges often signal elevated volatility; tight ranges suggest a slow open.

by default, edgeful sets IB to 1 hour from session open. but if your session starts at 2:00 PM and you want to analyze the first 90 minutes instead, you need to customize.

step 1: open the report you want to modify (e.g., IB retracement report).

step 2: click the customize button in the report settings.

step 3: find the initial balance settings and adjust the duration. fully customizable — pick whatever IB window fits your strategy (30 minutes, 1 hour, 90 minutes, 2 hours, etc.).

step 4: save and regenerate the report with your new IB settings. backtest over 6+ months to validate that your custom timeframe produces consistent edge.

keep the chart timeframe (bar size) low. the IB duration above sets how long the IB period lasts. the chart timeframe is separate — and the IB algo doesn't use the chart timeframe to trade — it recognizes the break on a wick and enters on a wick, never on a candle close. higher chart timeframes can create issues, so stick to a low one. the algo optimizer only offers 1m, 2m, 3m, 4m, 5m, and 10m for IB for the same reason.

after the first hour, price does one of two things: it breaks out of the IB range, or it stays trapped inside and retraces back to the IB boundaries.

breakout day: price closes above IB high or below IB low. the trend is established.

inside day/retracement: price stays within the IB range or comes back into it after an initial extension. entries live here — you're fading the initial move and catching the pullback.

edgeful's IB reports show you exactly how often each scenario plays out on your instrument — so you know whether to fade or follow.

IB retracements show how often price pulls back into the IB range after breaking out, and how deep those retracements go. the numbers are cumulative — they layer on each other.

after price breaks above the IB high (or below it), it typically pulls back into the range. edgeful's IB by retracement report shows you 3 critical levels: 25%, 50%, and 75% back into the IB range.

here's how to read it — and this trips people up, so pay attention:

the levels are nested. every day that pulled back 50% into the IB also passed through 25% on the way. so the 50% number is a share of the days that already reached 25%, not a separate share of all breakout days.

read them as a ladder. the gap between two levels tells you how many pullbacks stop at the shallower one and reverse before going deeper.

understanding this cumulative structure is key to setting realistic entry and stop levels.

the data tells you which retracement level gets hit most often — and which ones are weak. don't guess where price will retrace. let the data guide your entry.

if one retracement level gets hit consistently on your ticker and the deeper ones much less often, the shallower level is your entry. holding out for a deeper pullback often means missing the move.

approach 1: place your stop beyond the deeper retracement level. this gives you room for the deeper pullbacks without getting stopped out prematurely.

approach 2: use a tighter stop just past your entry level if you'd rather keep losses small on the breakouts that keep pulling back.

choose based on your risk tolerance and position size.

this one is for trading IB by hand. the IB algo's own stop sits inside the range (see IB settings above).

on a breakout above IB high: place your stop just below the IB low. if price closes back inside the range, your thesis is broken and you're out.

on a breakout below IB low: place your stop just above the IB high. same logic, opposite direction.

the IB by levels report shows you the exact dollar distance of this stop — so you know your actual risk before you enter.

once you're in a breakout trade, edgeful's IB extension levels show you where price typically stalls after breaking the IB range. instead of a single target, scale out: take partial profits at the first extension, let the rest run to the second extension.

a common approach: use the IB range size itself as your target. IB range is 50 pips — you buy a breakout at IB high, set stop at IB low, and target profit at IB high + 50 pips.

the opening candle (first 5-min or 15-min candle of the session) often telegraphs the day's direction. when it aligns with IB breakouts, you've got 2 data points agreeing — that's confluence.

if the opening candle is bullish AND price breaks above the IB high: that's a stronger setup than either alone.

if they conflict (bullish opening candle but price breaking below IB low): that's a warning. the setup is weaker.

IB algo not triggering? walk through these in order:

always test changes in simulation first before pushing them to live.

TradingView's latest strategy report update defaults the order size type to % of equity. on futures that sizes every order to 0 contracts, so the algo never places a trade — the strategy report has nothing to show, and no alert can fire either. open the algo's settings, go to the properties tab, and on the default order size line set the type to quantity and the number to your contracts per trade. full fix: strategy report says "this report requires trade data".

this one trips people up — and it's the kind of thing you can stare at for an hour before you spot it. so here's the rule, clearly:

in math terms: min ≤ IB size < max.

a concrete example. say you set min IB size = 20 pts and max IB size = 60 pts. here's what triggers and what doesn't:

why it works this way. if you stack filters — say, one algo for 20–60 pt IBs and another for 60–100 pt IBs — an exclusive max prevents the same day from triggering both. no double-counting. clean buckets.

the fix if it's costing you trades. if the IB you want to catch is sitting right at your max value, bump the max up slightly. a max of 60.1 will catch a 60 pt IB. a max of 60 will not.

this same rule applies across all edgeful algos with min/max filters — engulfing candle, ORB, and IB. min inclusive, max exclusive, every time.

test your IB approach in TradingView's Strategy Report over 12+ months. compare win rate and profit factor for breakout-only entries vs. retracement entries — this reveals which method suits your asset and timeframe better.

if you're deciding between the standard IB and the breakeven stop variant, run both on the same instrument and timeframe. compare profit factor, max drawdown, and average trade — the breakeven stop variant often has a higher win rate but lower average winner, since some trades exit at break-even instead of hitting the full target.

backtest your custom session times over the last 6 months. validate that IB breakouts and retracements match what the data shows.