summary: the IB report has 16 variants. each slices the data by a different dimension. here's what each one measures, when to use it, how to read it, and how to layer them for a sharper read.

the initial balance (IB) is the price range established during the first hour of a session. the IB report measures how price behaves after establishing that range: does it break above, break below, break both sides, or stay inside?

the standard view gives you the overall breakout-type picture (single break vs. double break vs. no break). the 15 subreports slice that same data by a different dimension: breakout direction, time of day, range size, weekday, opening gap, IB color, overnight direction, and more.

if you're new to subreports, read the full subreports reference first. this article is specifically about how to use each one on IB.

before you dig into the variants, here's how to read the three things new users ask about most: IB size, the percentages, and the win rate.

IB size is how wide the initial balance range is (the IB high minus the IB low), expressed as a percentage of price so it's comparable across tickers and across time.

the by-size report groups every session into size bands so you can see whether tight ranges and wide ranges break differently. you can set your own band with a custom range in customize report, and the report groups every session accordingly.

a 0.15% IB on NQ is a compressed, coiled range; a 1% IB is one that's already expanded. they tend to resolve differently, and by-size shows you where that line sits for your ticker and session.

"percentage" shows up in two places on the IB report, and they answer two different questions.

outcome rates are the headline numbers, like a single-break rate or a breakout-high rate. they tell you how often something happened across every session in your sample. read them as how the instrument has behaved, not a forecast for tomorrow.

level percentages are the 25%, 50%, 75% rows on by-levels and by-retracement, measured as a share of the IB range rather than as an outcome rate. one quirk: the level fills are cumulative, so a 50% level reading 60% means price reached at least that far on 60% of qualifying days. the numbers step down as the levels get further out.

a high win rate on an IB report isn't edgeful predicting a winner. it's a count: how often that exact outcome has happened across your ticker, session, and date range. once you've filtered down to a setup the data backs, a high number is the whole point. you're looking at the conditions that have resolved the same way most often.

two things keep that number honest:

and a high historical win rate still takes customization and screen time to turn into a process that works for you. the number is the starting point, not the finish line.

the base view. shows how the IB breakout resolved across three structural outcomes: single break (price broke only one side of the first-hour range), double break (both sides broke during the session), and no break (price stayed inside the range all day).

this is your starting point. every other IB subreport slices this same data by a different dimension. standard gives you the unfiltered breakout-type picture first.

when to use it: you're getting your first read on IB behavior for a specific ticker, session, and date range. you want to answer: does this instrument pick a side and go, chop both sides, or hold the range all day?

how to read it: look at the single-break rate first. a high single-break rate (say 75%+) means price tends to commit to one direction. the first-hour range is a reliable launch point. a high double-break rate means you need to plan for the whipsaw, or use by-double-break to understand what happens after both sides get hit. a high no-break rate means the IB is holding as the day's range more often than expected. the range itself is the setup, not the breakout.

tip: the IB is defined by your session setting. an IB on the NY session (9:30–10:30 am ET) is measuring something completely different than an IB on the London session. make sure your session matches when you actually trade.

the directional version of standard. where standard lumps every single break into one bucket, by-breakout splits the outcome by direction: broke IB high, broke IB low, double break (both sides), or no break.

when to use it: you care which way the single breaks went, not just that they happened. it answers "when this instrument breaks one side of the IB, is it usually the high or the low?"

how to read it: compare broke-high vs. broke-low for the directional lean, and the double-break share for how often both sides get taken. it's the same underlying data as standard, one level more granular. useful for building a directional bias rather than just a single-vs-double read.

shows where the day's close landed relative to the IB range. did price close above the IB high, inside the range, or below the IB low?

a breakout that fades back into the range by the close is a very different trade than one that holds. this subreport separates those outcomes.

when to use it: you're trading IB breakouts and want to know if the move is likely to sustain through the session close. this matters most if you're holding positions into end of day rather than taking quick scalps.

how to read it: a high percentage of closes above the IB high means breakouts up tend to stick. a high percentage of closes back inside the range means breakouts tend to fail or reverse by end of day. this directly shapes your exit strategy. if most breakouts close back inside, holding to end of day is fighting the data.

not sure whether a "break" here means a wick through the level or a candle closing beyond it? that distinction is set by your breakout criteria — wick vs close — and what "broken" means across reports walks through what each one counts.

tip: pair with standard. if the single-break rate is high but most days still close back inside the range, the breakouts are real but they don't hold. that's a scalp, not a swing.

drills into double-break behavior. it splits days by which side broke first — breakout first (the IB high broke first) vs. breakdown first (the IB low broke first), and then shows how often a session that breaks one side goes on to break the other side too.

this is an IB-specific subreport. double-break days are the choppiest, most frustrating sessions for breakout traders. instead of avoiding them entirely, this data tells you how likely the first break is to get reversed into a double break.

when to use it: you're getting stopped out on IB trades and suspect double breaks are the cause. or you want to know, once the first side breaks, how much room you need to give the trade before the opposite side gets tagged.

how to read it: look at the double-break rate for each first-break direction. a low double-break rate means the first break usually holds. you can trust the initial direction and favor continuation. a high double-break rate means the first break frequently gets reversed, which favors fade/mean-reversion setups and wider stops.

tip: combine with by-size. tight IBs tend to double-break more often because the range is narrow enough that normal volatility can take out both sides. a double break on a 5-point IB is noise; a double break on a 30-point IB is a different story.

shows how often price reaches specific extension targets beyond the IB range, in both the breakout and breakdown directions.

this is the most directly actionable subreport for setting take-profit targets. instead of guessing where to exit, you're using historical data to see how far price has actually gone after breaking out of the first hour range.

when to use it: you're setting a take-profit target and want to know the historical odds of price reaching that level. also where algo traders validate their TP settings. if you're running an IB algo with a TP at a given extension, pull up by-levels and see how often that target gets hit.

the break type setting: like ORB, this subreport has a key setting. all breaks counts every breakout instance during the session, including re-breaks. first break counts only the first break, giving you the cleanest read on the initial move. use "first break" for initial breakout trades; "all breaks" for a broader picture.

the day filter: toggle between all days, breakout days, breakdown days, and double break days to see the level fill rates for just the type of day you care about.

how to read it: each extension level shows a fill rate that naturally decreases as you move higher. look for the point where the fill rate drops off sharply. that's where the move typically stalls. set your primary TP before that cliff.

tip: compare IB by-levels vs. ORB by-levels for the same ticker and session. the IB range is larger (60 minutes vs. 15 minutes for ORB), so the absolute extensions are different. understanding both gives you two layers of price targets.

shows how far price traveled beyond the IB range after breaking out: both the maximum extension and the average extension, in each direction (up and down). it measures the first breakout of the day only, and the extension is how far price ran before coming back inside the range.

where by-levels asks "did price reach a specific target?", by-performance gives you the raw size of the move: how far the typical breakout runs, and how far the best ones go.

when to use it: you want to set realistic, data-driven profit targets. if the average move after a breakout is only 0.3%, that's your baseline. not every breakout delivers a 1–2% run. use this to calibrate expectations before setting specific targets with by-levels.

by-performance vs. by-levels: by-levels asks "how often did price reach 50%?" — a hit rate at specific targets. by-performance shows the magnitude: the max and average extension. use by-performance to understand the size of the move, then by-levels to evaluate specific targets.

how to read it: compare the average extension to the max. if the average is small but the max is large, the instrument produces mostly modest moves with occasional outsized runs. those big sessions are what make the setup profitable over time. compare up vs. down to see if one direction extends further than the other.

tip: the edgeful TradingView indicator can plot the average and max extension levels straight onto your chart, so you can see exactly where to scale out or tighten stops.

shows the relationship between which side of the IB forms first and which side breaks first. typically the side that forms first is not the side that breaks, so knowing how the range formed gives you a directional read before the break happens.

when the IB is forming, one side prints first: either the high or the low. by-rejection tracks how often the side that formed first ends up holding (getting rejected) while the opposite side is the one that breaks. it's a formation-order pattern.

when to use it: you want a directional read on the breakout while the range is still forming. by the time the IB closes, you already know which side formed first, so you can lean toward fading that side and trading the break of the opposite side.

how to read it: look at how often the first-formed side gets rejected vs. broken. a high rejection rate on the first-formed side means the pattern holds. bias your trades toward breaks of the opposite side. a low rejection rate means there's no edge from formation order on this instrument.

the IB ending zone filter: by-rejection also lets you filter by where price sat at the end of the IB period, measured as a % of the IB range. the scale is always anchored to the rejection side, so a low ending zone means price finished the IB sitting on the rejection side, lined up to break the opposite side. use it to narrow the sample to the formation + ending-zone combinations that historically lead to the cleanest breaks. leave it on "all days" to see the unfiltered picture.

tip: this is one of the few subreports that gives you actionable signal in real-time, before the breakout happens. by the end of the IB, you already know which side formed first and where price ended up in the range, which means you can set up a directional bias before the breakout fires.

shows how often price pulls back toward the broken IB level after a clean single-direction breakout — and how deep those pullbacks typically go. the breakout and breakdown directions are shown separately.

important: by-retracement only includes days with a single clean break. double-break and no-break days are excluded, since they change the context entirely.

when to use it: you're looking to enter on a pullback after the initial IB breakout rather than chasing the move. this shows how often that re-test happens and how deep it goes, so you can decide where to place a limit order.

how to read it: if 70% of breakouts retrace to 25% but only 30% retrace to 50%, you're better off entering at the 25% level. waiting for 50% means missing most of the trades.

tip: pair with by-levels. by-retracement tells you where to enter on the pullback, by-levels tells you where to set your take-profit once you're in. together they define the full trade: entry, target, and the data behind both.

combines the formation-order read from by-rejection with the pullback read from by-retracement. it answers the question that comes right after formation order hands you a side: how much heat do I take before the expected break?

it builds on the same formation-order read as by-rejection: the side that forms first points to an expected break of the opposite side. from there it measures how much price pulls back against that expectation before the break actually fires, expressed as a share of the range so you can read how often the pullback was shallow versus deep.

important: the pullback numbers describe the days the expected side actually broke — the setups you are planning to trade. they do not reflect the days the opposite side broke first, so a stop built from them still has to account for those.

when to use it: you are entering at the IB close in the direction the rejection read favors, and you want to know how much drawdown to plan for before the break. it is the report that sizes your stop.

how to read it: read each line as "how often price pulled back at least this far." if price rarely trades past the 50% line, a stop just beyond it gives the trade room while keeping risk defined. if price often reaches the 75% or 100% line, entering right at the close carries more heat than it looks, so widen the stop or wait for a deeper entry. the counts describe only the days the bias played out, so a stop built from them still has to survive the days the opposite side breaks first.

tip: use it right after by-rejection. by-rejection gives you the side before the break fires; by-rejection-retracement tells you how much room to give the trade once you are in.

shows how breakout behavior changes based on the physical size of the initial balance range itself.

a tight 5-point IB on NQ is a very different setup than a wide 40-point IB. breakout rate, extension, direction lean, and follow-through can all shift dramatically depending on range size.

when to use it: you're filtering IB setups by volatility conditions. also directly useful for setting max/min IB size thresholds in your algo. if the data shows IBs above a certain size tend to contain price all day, set your max threshold there.

how to read it: the report groups IBs into size buckets and shows the breakout rate, direction, and extension for each. look for size ranges that consistently produce clean breakouts with good follow-through. those are your sweet spots. check the sample size in each bucket. a 90% breakout rate with only 5 occurrences isn't reliable.

tip: tight IBs often correlate with higher breakout rates. compressed ranges tend to resolve with expansion. wide IBs may hold as the day's range. by-size shows you exactly where that transition happens for your specific ticker and session.

shows when during the session the IB breakout occurred, not whether it happened, but when.

a breakout at 10:35 AM (right after the IB forms) is a different trade than one at 2:00 PM. early breaks tend to have more follow-through; late breaks can behave differently depending on end-of-day dynamics.

when to use it: you're optimizing entry timing. if 80% of IB breakouts happen within the first 30 minutes after the IB closes and late-session breaks have poor follow-through, you know your window, and you don't need to sit in front of the screen all day.

how to read it: look for concentration. if most breakouts cluster in a specific time window, that's your highest-expectancy trading window. also look at follow-through by time — an early breakout might have a 70% continuation rate, while a late-session break might only continue 45%.

tip: combine with your algo's trading hours parameter. if breakouts after 2:00 PM tend to fail, set your algo to stop trading by 2:00 PM. you're filtering out bad setups, not missing good ones.

shows what time the IB high and IB low tend to form inside the initial balance window. it's not measuring when price breaks out. it's measuring when each extreme of the range gets set.

the report looks at where inside the IB window each extreme — the IB high and the IB low — tends to form, using your candle timeframe to divide the window into time buckets. a shorter candle timeframe gives you a finer breakdown; a longer one gives you a coarser one.

each chart shows, across all the days measured, how often the IB high (or IB low) formed in each part of the window, so the bars add up to 100%.

when to use it: you want to know when the IB range is actually likely to be complete. if you tend to fade a move or trade a break before the real extreme has historically formed, this shows whether you're acting too early.

how to read it: look for where the bars cluster. if the IB high usually forms early in the window, the high tends to get set near the open and the rest of the IB builds below it. if the IB low usually forms late, price tends to drift lower into the end of the IB. if the timing is spread evenly across the buckets, the range isn't reliably set until the window closes, so don't treat the IB as done too early.

tip: the side that sets its extreme first often shows which side committed early. pair it with by-rejection. formation order plus where price ended up in the range gives you a directional read before the breakout fires.

shows IB breakout behavior broken down by day of week — Monday through Friday.

some instruments show meaningful differences by weekday. the IB breakout rate on a Monday might look very different from a Friday, especially around regular economic releases or end-of-week flows.

timezone: weekdays are always determined by ET (Eastern Time), regardless of your location or the asset's primary trading timezone.

when to use it: you're day-of-week filtering your setups. if you can only trade 3 days a week and want to pick the best 3, by-weekday tells you which days historically produce the strongest IB breakouts on your instrument.

how to read it: each day shows its own breakout rate, direction lean, and sample size. look for days that consistently outperform, and days that consistently underperform. if Friday breakout rates are 15% lower than the weekly average, that's worth knowing before you size up a Friday trade.

tip: combine with by-time. if Monday IB breakouts tend to happen early but Friday breaks tend to be late-session, that's two different playbooks for two different days. layering weekday + time gives you a sharper picture.

splits IB breakout behavior by how the session opened relative to the prior close — gap up vs. gap down — and shows how each gap type resolved (broke IB high, broke IB low, double break, or no break).

the idea: an IB that forms after a gap up can break differently than one that forms after a gap down. this subreport tells you whether the opening gap gives you a directional lean on the breakout before the range even closes.

when to use it: you want to factor the opening gap into your IB read. if gap-up days break the IB high far more often than gap-down days, the gap itself becomes part of your bias.

how to read it: compare the breakout split for gap up vs. gap down. two patterns to look for: continuation (gap-up days breaking the IB high, gap-down days breaking the IB low, the gap acts as a launchpad) and gap fill (gap-up days breaking the IB low, gap-down days breaking the IB high, price pulls back toward the prior close). check the gap size setting in custom settings too: you can narrow to a specific gap-size band so you're not lumping tiny gaps in with large ones.

tip: pair with the gap fill report. by gap type tells you how the IB breaks after a gap; gap fill tells you whether the gap itself is likely to fill first.

splits IB breakout behavior by the color of the IB candle: whether the first-hour range closed green or red — and shows how each resolved (single break high, single break low, double break, no break).

a green IB candle closed higher than it opened over the first hour (buyers in control); a red IB closed lower than it opened (sellers in control). this subreport asks whether that early control carries into the breakout.

when to use it: you want to know if the IB's own direction predicts the break. if green IBs break the high and red IBs break the low at a high rate, the IB candle color becomes a simple, real-time bias you can read the moment the range closes (10:30 am ET on the default session).

how to read it: compare the single-break-high rate on green IBs vs. red IBs. if green IBs break the high more than the low and red IBs break the low more than the high, early momentum is carrying through. trade in the direction of the IB color. a roughly even split means color gives you no edge on that instrument, and you should filter by a different dimension.

splits IB breakout behavior by what price did overnight, before the session opened: whether the overnight session was green (today's open above yesterday's close) or red (open below yesterday's close) — and shows how the IB resolved in each case.

note: this one applies to futures and crypto only. stocks don't have an overnight session in the same sense.

when to use it: you want to factor overnight momentum into your IB read. if a green overnight session leads to the IB breaking higher more often, the overnight move becomes part of your pre-market bias. you have a lean before 9:30 am.

how to read it: compare the breakout split for green overnight vs. red overnight. look for a skew where one overnight direction reliably precedes a break in the same (or the opposite) direction. the table view also shows the size of the overnight move, so you can check whether bigger overnight moves matter more than small ones.

every IB variant shares three core settings under customize report:

most variants add their own filters on top: IB size and weekdays to use are common — plus a few report-specific ones: break type (all breaks vs. first break) on by-levels, gap size on by-gap-type, the IB ending zone on by-rejection, and a break-back-in criteria on by-performance.

you don't have to pick just one. most traders build their IB process by layering multiple subreports:

that's not the only order. adjust based on what matters most to your process. the point is that each subreport answers a different question, and combining them builds a sharper picture than any single view.

both measure range breakouts, but the range is different:

because the IB range is wider, it breaks less often. but when it does, the move tends to carry more weight. ORB breaks happen more frequently but with smaller initial ranges.

many traders use both. ORB gives you an earlier signal; IB gives you a more established one. if the ORB breaks and then the IB breaks in the same direction, that's confluence: both timeframes agreeing.

the wider IB range also makes breakout-type analysis carry more weight — which is why the standard IB view leads with the single / double / no-break split, and by-double-break drills into what happens after both sides get hit.

how many IB variants are there?

16: the standard view plus 15 subreports: by breakout, by close, by double break, by levels, by performance, by rejection, by retracement, by rejection retracement, by size, by time, by formation time, by weekday, by gap type, by color, and by overnight session.

what's the difference between standard and by-breakout?

standard groups every single break into one bucket (single / double / no break). by-breakout splits that single-break bucket by direction — broke IB high vs. broke IB low — so you can see which way breaks usually go, not just that they were single.

what's the difference between by-performance and by-levels?

by-performance shows the magnitude of the move: the maximum and average extension of the first breakout, up and down. by-levels asks a specific question: how often did price reach a particular extension target? use by-performance to understand the size of the typical move, then use by-levels to evaluate specific price targets.

what's the difference between by-rejection and by-retracement?

by-rejection shows the relationship between which side of the IB forms first and which side breaks first — typically the side that forms first is not the side that breaks, so it gives you a directional read before the break happens. by-retracement shows pullbacks after a successful breakout. they answer different questions: by-rejection predicts which side will break, by-retracement tells you what happens once it does.

how does the IB ending zone filter work in by-rejection?

it filters days by where price sat at the end of the IB period, relative to the rejection side of the range. the scale is always anchored to the rejection side, so a low ending zone consistently means price finished sitting on the rejection side, lined up to break the opposite side, no matter which side formed first.

what's the difference between by-color, by-gap-type, and by-overnight-session?

all three split the breakout by a directional condition, just a different one. by-gap-type uses the opening gap (today's open vs. yesterday's close, filtered by gap size). by-color uses the color of the IB candle itself: did the first hour close green or red? by-overnight-session uses the overnight direction: was the open above or below the prior close? they're designed to be combined: size up when two or three agree, stay smaller when they conflict.

why does by-retracement exclude double-break days?

on a double-break day, price broke both sides of the range. that changes the context so much that including those days would distort the pullback data. by-retracement isolates clean single-direction breakouts for a cleaner read.

what is the difference between by-retracement and by-rejection-retracement?

both measure pullbacks, but they frame the move differently. by-retracement measures the pullback after a clean single-direction break, back toward the level that broke, across every clean-break day. by-rejection-retracement first uses formation order to set an expected side, then measures the pullback against that expectation from the IB close until the break, on the days the expected side broke. use by-retracement when you are entering on a pullback after the break; use by-rejection-retracement when you are entering at the IB close on the rejection bias and need to know the drawdown before it.

does the IB timeframe affect subreport data?

yes. your IB timeframe setting affects every subreport. a 30-minute IB and a 60-minute IB will show different data across all variants because the range itself is different.