summary: the IB report has 11 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 picture. the 10 subreports slice that same data by a different dimension — time of day, range size, weekday, breakout type, 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.

the base view. shows the overall IB breakout rate — how often price breaks above the first hour high or below the first hour low during the session.

this is your starting point. every other IB subreport slices this same data by a different dimension. standard gives you the unfiltered 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 break its first hour range consistently, and in which direction?

how to read it: look at the overall breakout rate first. if the IB breaks 80%+ of the time, the first hour range is a reliable launch point for directional moves. if it holds most days, the IB itself is acting as the day's range — and breakout trades are going to be less frequent. then check the directional lean — a strong bullish or bearish skew gives you a bias to work with.

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.

breaks down IB outcomes into their structural categories: single break up (only the high broke), single break down (only the low broke), double break (both sides broke), and no break (price stayed inside the range all day).

this is unique to IB — ORB doesn't have it. it matters because a single clean break in one direction is a fundamentally different market structure than a day where both sides got taken out.

when to use it: you want to understand the character of IB breakouts on your instrument. some tickers are "clean breakers" — price picks a side and goes. others are "choppy" — they double-break constantly. knowing which type you're trading changes your entire approach.

how to read it: look at the percentage split between single breaks and double breaks. if 60% of days are clean single breaks, you can trust the initial direction more. if 40%+ of days are double breaks, you need to plan for the whipsaw — or use by-double-break to understand what happens after both sides get hit.

tip: a high "no break" rate means the IB is holding as the day's range more often than expected. that's a different kind of data — it tells you the range itself is the setup, not the breakout.

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 on breakout-up days means the move tends 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.

tip: pair with by-breakout. if single breaks close outside the range 75% of the time but double breaks close inside 60% of the time, that distinction should affect how you manage each type.

isolates days where both sides of the IB broke — price went above the high and below the low within the same session — and shows which direction ultimately won.

this is another IB-specific subreport. double-break days are the choppiest, most frustrating sessions for breakout traders. instead of avoiding them entirely, this data tells you what tends to happen after the whipsaw.

when to use it: you're getting stopped out on IB trades and suspect double breaks are the cause. or you want to build a strategy specifically for double-break days — some traders wait for both sides to break and then trade in the winning direction.

how to read it: look at which direction wins after both levels get taken. if 65% of double-break days close bullish, the second break to the upside tends to be the real move. also check the first break direction — does the first break direction predict the eventual winner, or is it usually a trap?

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. knowing this helps you filter — 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 — 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%, and further.

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 1.5x, 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.

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.

[SCREENSHOT NEEDED: IB by performance report showing distribution of post-breakout outcomes]

shows the full distribution of how far price traveled beyond the IB range after breaking out — not just whether it hit a specific target, but the entire spread of outcomes.

think of it as a histogram of breakout quality. how many moves were small? how many ran big? where does the typical IB breakout end up?

when to use it: you want to understand the overall quality of IB breakouts on a given instrument. are most breakouts big moves, or do they stall early? use this to calibrate expectations before setting specific targets with by-levels.

by-performance vs. by-levels: by-levels asks "did price reach 50%?" — a yes/no at specific targets. by-performance shows the full spread of outcomes. use by-performance first to understand the range of possibilities, then by-levels to evaluate specific targets.

how to read it: look at where the bulk of the distribution sits. if most breakouts cluster around 25-50% extension, the instrument produces modest moves off the IB. a distribution with a long right tail means the instrument occasionally produces outsized moves — those are the sessions that make the setup profitable over time.

shows how often price tests the IB high or low and reverses back inside the range — the opposite of a breakout. a "rejection" means the level held.

this is unique to IB and one of the most underused subreports. while most traders focus on breakouts, rejection data tells you how often the IB levels act as support and resistance. that's a completely different trade — fading the breakout attempt instead of trading with it.

when to use it: you're interested in mean reversion setups off the IB levels, or you want to understand how often "failed breakouts" happen on your instrument. if the rejection rate is high, the IB is acting more as a container than a launch point.

how to read it: a high rejection rate at the IB high means price is testing that level and failing — the breakout isn't following through. this could mean the IB high is strong resistance, or that the breakout is happening later in the session after a failed first attempt. pair with by-time to see when rejections tend to happen.

tip: if rejection rates are high on your instrument, consider a strategy that fades the first test of the IB level and only trades with the breakout on a re-test. the data will tell you whether that approach has an edge.

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

important: by-retracement only includes days with a single clean break. double-break days are excluded, since a double break changes 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.

this is not fading the IB. by-retracement shows pullbacks after a successful breakout — you're entering with the breakout direction on a pullback. fading the IB (betting the breakout fails) is a different thesis — use by-rejection for that.

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.

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 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.

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.

IB also has 3 subreports that ORB doesn't: by-breakout, by-double-break, and by-rejection. these exist because the wider IB range makes breakout types and rejections more meaningful — a double break on a 60-minute range tells you more than a double break on a 15-minute range.

what's the default IB timeframe?

60 minutes (the first hour of your selected session). this is customizable — some traders use 30-minute or 90-minute IBs depending on their strategy.

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

by-performance shows the full distribution of post-breakout moves — the shape of all outcomes. by-levels asks a specific question: how often did price reach a particular extension target? use by-performance to understand the range of possibilities, then use by-levels to evaluate specific price targets.

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

by-rejection shows times price tested the IB level and failed to break through — the level held. by-retracement shows pullbacks after a successful breakout. rejection = the breakout didn't happen. retracement = the breakout happened but price came back to re-test.

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.

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.