foreign hey there you ninja Devils Sam here with you today we're looking at the latest update to our initial balance indicator now we've added this out on the market for Oh by three three four years uh now we've we've just enhanced it a little bit these are subtle enhancements but I wanted to uh reintroduce this to you for those of you that may not be familiar with trading the initial balance or how it influences the day I think this this could be Illuminating to you now let's start with just defining what the initial balance is it's the initial balance is just the first 60 Minutes of trading it's it sounds it sounds like it would be more uh more sophisticated than that it's really both the opening range and the and the initial balance are kind of a a holdover from Market profile traders that are working in 30 minute increments 30 minute blocks so uh we Define the the opening range is the first 30 minutes and the initial balance is the first 60 minutes all right so let me just quickly give give you a look at what I've got on the chart this is just I'm recording this on Tuesday the 28th last day of February so I've got I think I went back six seven days here this is a 2000 tick we're going to look at a few indexes and we'll take a peek at crude as well because this phenomenon that I'm going to show you is consistent across all markets but we'll just use with a 2000 tick here I you know wanted something to where we could see as we hit these these levels uh but you know not get down to the granular which I wasn't going to do a one minute and take too long to get through it so but you can see what what we're showing you with the initial Bond syndicator do you want anything else on the chart so the Market opens we show you the open we give you the first 30 minutes and we you know again color choices are entirely up to you this is just what I use so I use this this yellowing color for in these dashed lines for the first 30 minutes and then once we hit 10 30 East Coast time then the initial balance is defined and we go to these hard lines now we I am color coding and we give you the option to color code this is just the colors that I'm using we're color coding the initial balance high and low so if it is untouched or a virgin IB it stays in this bright green again this is my choice of color you call it whatever you like if it's untouched it stays in green once it's been touched then then again my color palette I change it to White right so if we look today the initial balance wasn't tapped until uh like two minutes before four o'clock right so you can see it right here I think that's like 358 59 in the very last sell-off at the end of the day we uh we broke it here so you see the transition from green to White right here we we didn't hit it until it was at about 11 15. dropped right back to the open then back to hit it again but here now we're white so you know again you change these colors to your liking now um I what I've done here again because I'm only looking at the rth to highlight the initial balance here as we as we go through this I I'm going to take you through some of the features here via the I the initial balance drop down menu so you can display all days are just the current day only right so if you don't want to fuss with any anything else you just want to focus over here okay well there's an option for you I the the drop down of course is just a nice feature so you don't have to open indicators and go in there and scroll down and find it so it's just very quick but I'm going to go ahead and turn all days on because that will suit my purposes here as I take you through a few days of this do you want to show the pre-market or not again it's not really relevant here since we're only looking at rth but that is an option for you so if I turn it back on you can see we're going to show you the the pre-market High the pre-market mid and the pre-market low those are not things to be discarded algorithms will use all three of those so if you're Trading yeah again it's up to the individual Trader right but if I if I'm trading I'm going to include the the over the the uh the extended hours because I want to know where those are because algorithms will be using them we give you the option to to show the session background if you wanted to I don't use it again that's a personal preference if you wanted to color in the the range of the session again much of these color choices are just like any ninja indicator you change change them to whatever color you'd like let me just keep working through the through the drop down list here so I'm going to leave that off the initial balance on or off I could take it off if I didn't really if I only wanted to focus on the opening range there are many traders that that's what they focus on for just the first 30 minutes for their tell on what's going to happen throughout the course of the day so it's not mandatory I think I would encourage you to keep it on right because I think as we go through some examples you see it's it's significance now we give you the option to show the extensions so it's very common oh let me get that back on very common okay right there there we go for the market to move to extension so you see today we didn't quite make the hundred we made approximately 50 of it so all we're doing here and this is traditionally how it's calculated we're just taking the range of the IB and then this is up exactly a hundred percent of it right very common for it to go 50 but on these you know really extreme days you'll see it go 100 200 300 sometimes 400 percent the range of the IB particularly if the first hour is is consolidation and then you get a big move later in the day you'll see these levels again algorithms will use anything and everything they can often you'll see a reaction at those levels okay so I threw the list here so that's the the IB extensions on or on uh the previous IB extensions if you wanted to see those as well it's another another option for you I'm going to go ahead and take those off uh do I want the prices or not or just the levels right I typically will keep the prices on uh show the range if you want it right how what the range of the IB is so this one's 2275 today we had uh 18 and a half points that's giving you an idea of the range again it's just personal preference whether you want to show that or not and then if you want to show the statistics and that what that's going to do is just show you the it's kind of tiny down here but so we're looking at six days of data here of those six days 100 of those days the IB was broken the IB low was broken also 100 of the days but the IB high was only broken 50 of those days so just that alone should give you an idea that we've been in a down Market at least over the last six days the average break of the IB low was 92 percent right so we didn't quite make a hundred percent but we made 92 if you're averaging those days and the uh the break of the IV height 35 so the stats right here just give you some inkling is what kind of Market we're in now not that that's particularly relevant after the fact but it might give you you know it's just statistical analysis might be meaningful to you I'm going to go ahead and turn it off all right so I think I've got uh what's available here in the drop down let me just again review here a full day so you see what's what's within the indicator so we've a session high low the IB High here again it's green if it's a virgin and it's white if it's been tapped the opening Range High this is a 30 minute first 30 minutes the IB mid right also right you just you know will will Algos use it you tell me right you tell me yes they will uh here's the open right of course right I'll go as we use that here we finally break and then here's the the pre-mid uh high and low again if you had extended hours on you'd see those as well and again not to be ignored those are used Often by algorithms oh okay so I think I've got everything covered here but do you do you I just want you to see this this distinction here between the for the the opening range I first 30 minutes and then here at 10 30 right it's the first hour then we hit the initial balance and and the line drawings change now one of the things people ask me like why is this such a big deal why is the first 60 minutes ago what's the big deal with the initial balance the the reason you want to pay attention to the initial balance is because in a consolidation day where we stay contained within an initial balance we we tend to lose the interest of the higher time frame Traders when we have a big down day oh let's see if I can find a good one in the last six days when we have when we have a big well here's a pretty good Ripper well you guys remember this day when we have a big Ripper down here uh of these days let me show the let me get the extensions previous extensions okay so when we get these these big big big days here and this is a good example so you see the initial balance here was relatively narrow in comparison to the kind of volatility we had later in the day when the when we break the initial balance and we sustain a break this draws in the interest of the higher time frame Traders and then you know you've got more participation you know that that yeah it's just the reality right so once we break out of the range because there are days where you'll just you can just chop within the initial balance here and the the higher time frame Traders just yawn at it when we get a break like this now they're interested now we add in the overnight and you can see some really substantial ranges of course the markets are so incredibly volatile right now that again bringing in those higher time frame Traders can add fuel to the fire whether it's a down or an up um okay so I think I think that should give you some idea here um here this is here we went IB 100 you see here's a little reaction at the hundred and then here's uh oh here's uh here's the 200 we actually when it looks about two and a half on that day so uh that should give you some insight it's um I would tell you that in addition to v-wop these are the two most important levels on the board day in Day Out I I would almost put them overview myself right now I trade them every day so I have a a real feel for this algorithm here so again to to emphasize and I'm just sharing this trade with you it's funny I've shared this trade with many and a few few are comfortable taking it because often and part part of that reason is it's just you know human nature right the market is screaming up towards it and just your instincts they go oh my God I can't sell it it's going straight up well encourage you to test this if this concept is new to you and you've not if you don't track it many people don't even know what it is let alone track it uh and now of course you you know we're giving you an indicator that's going to do it for you you could you could just draw a line if you wanted to you know at 10 30. say okay I've got the you could draw a box if you wanted to but yeah you don't I mean you you could do it yourself but kind of a kind of a pain in the butt right to do it right how nice this is a reasonably priced indicator how nice to have something like this do it for you now that said now let me get you to the kind of the the the prize in the in in the tracker Jack box here the the the trade I want to show you here is the first test of the initial balance High now again I want to emphasize if I can identify this as an algorithm you can be damn sure that others have as well right and those that write write algorithms are are very much aware of it and Traders in general that that are are the majority of Traders professional Traders are very aware of the initial balance and you're going to find that they're going to be days where it may be news and maybe for whatever reason that there's there's a reason that the market is going to push beyond the initial balance and you'll find that it's it's it's fairly evident on those days when the intention is for call them whales institutions where I call them whales when the when the intention is to break the initial balance you'll often see a huge push of volume because they know they're that they know what I know right there's an algorithm sitting right there that's going to fade them so when they when they push through it it particularly if you're using a footprint chart you can you can really see the emphasis there and uh you will you know I'm not going to take you into a footprint charts here that you want to see that you come over to our Discord here which is now entirely free by the way but um that that's an option for you where you can really see inside the candle and you can see the the the the Delta flip and you know when when you as well you'll be able to see when they intend to break it it will be very obvious okay let's just use today here as a couple we'll go back a few days here and then we'll look at a few other markets because this is consistent on all markets okay well today's a good example right so we here we open we go up here's the opening range right we see it in yellow so this this is the when the IB is forming here we get a high here but it's not considered technically the IB until 10 30. so we're giving you a dotted line here as this is the potential pivot of pivot high for the initial balance but it's not confirmed until we get to 10 30 obviously right so here's the the open the the opening range opening range low right so the Market's kind of it was kind of tight today there's not a lot happening here it was well contained within the value area and then we started to get some volatility right obviously it expanded as the day went on so here's the let me just do this on a 2000 and here here's the push apartment here it is here's the push right into the to the first test of the IV high now if I zoom in there a little bit this is primarily a scalp right something to look for as a scalp so I will typically trade it with a with a three lot I my my scalp targets would typically be well depending on the day three to five ticks right I'm looking for three to five for for the two scallops and then I like to leave a runner because then this is a good example today after we we first tested here initial push was oh would we get there 10 ticks right so we we popped up here's the first test to come back down we got 10 ticks back up again it's this is a an effort to try and break the IB since they can't get any legs here what do we do we fall right back to the open so the the advantage here of leaving a runner is you can get this kind of move now I I personally don't don't allow for any max I'll allow for is 16 ticks here so you can see today once we hit it we went five ticks the other direction here so if you had a runner and you don't you know it's personal preference as to whether or not you know once you're five or out with you want to go to break even or reduce the risk that's what I do right if I get my scalp set I'm going to reduce the risk by bringing the stop down but I know that often there'll be volatility around the IB high so I don't want to just take five and run because this is a great example today you know oh just for fun right for those of you that know what we teach over here where do we fall right to a golden Zone okay so actually I think it was tick on here from the absolute low right here we gotta Wick through it but that ended up being good trade anyway so back to the point here so from from this little chat but you know just just to the open there's 43 ticks IB low stays a virgin right never tested until four o'clock right and that you wouldn't take you wouldn't be looking for this trade at four o'clock way too late in the day okay so I would I would take it up to 345 but here this is damn near at the close that I wouldn't fuss with it then uh let's go back a day and just take a look just take a peek now some days it's going to be a little tricky right the advantages of a footprint are definitely well there definitely I mean there's always advantages to being able to see inside the candles so here again next day we're just here we're identifying the opening range first 30 minutes right so a little ping here uh IB High stays a virgin never gets tapped uh we come down here here's the first step now this is a little this is often you'll see this this same kind of thing here there'll be volatility around the the IB this is very outgo thick right this is not other than the first test this is not a great place to be entering because it's so it's so combative here between bulls and bears if you're testing the IBO Bears of course want it out right that'll bring in the higher time frame Traders Bulls are doing everything they can to get it back in right to stay in the IB maybe head back to v-wop so you see the volatility here now this is a day where you didn't get a lot where so oh here's your first test it's kind of personal preference right and certainly looking at the nicey tick would be helpful here to see if you're in in an extreme so we got 11 ticks here off of the first push back in I think I should have you know I should have the tick up but that would be helpful to look at the Nike Tech see if we're if we're in an extreme I.E 600 800 or beyond that just would give you more conviction here to take the trade we bump around it bump around it and then we break and then you'll find that this is very consistent once we break the IB will often be the support of resistance whether we're talking high or low well it's it's my suggestion to you would be it's it's a much better trade when we're coming from below into it for that kind of reaction then have if it's inside all day to have it come back test and then go again yes there are days where you'll see that but it's less reliable than when we're out coming back in because again bears are going to make a huge effort to keep it out right because they want it to stay out and try and get this kind of a movement here we're in we're in we're in nope we're not staying in let me go back a day here just because you need to see this and what I would encourage you to do is uh try trial it if you don't own it trial it and if you're not familiar with this trade you try that you can try all of our indicators for seven days right do your own research I don't take my word for it I mean I'm showing you the most recent data here but you know you're not going to have any conviction enough conviction to take the trade unless you test it yourself now note here you can it's it's really tight here you see where we go where we we are still green here I.E we haven't broken it's actually we haven't touched it here this is a front run by a tick right and you're starting to see this right this trade will attack will get front run by a tick or two we're seeing that more and more right it did you know I cats out of the bag on this to some degree but take a look here so here's here's where we break and we go 37 ticks right that's 462. right so if you of course your first five or again up to the individual from in my case my first two are out plus five and a runner here you know you got to use some judgment as to as to what you're after here because you know you gave it all back back down for another test again right bears want it out Bulls are trying to get it back in now what do we do we go right up right up to the IV high right so it's still green still green green we go up here we go up to the IB High we go through by eight ticks as it comes back down well if you went back to the open there's 42 if you wrote it all the way I had some Traders today that of course we focus on this trade in our room wrote it all the way down there's 89 ticks right that's why you want to have a runner right for that kind of a move now would you are you going to get it swing High to swing low probably not I wouldn't have taken it I would have taken it I thought if we got back to the mid I would have taken it right here been been very comfortable with my 56 ticks and that's just me let's go back a day here sure I don't want this you can do this here but I just want to make the point here I want to show you some days where it fails as well so here's a day that was tricky right the the tick was very low here but as this came back in so here's the first test we do go through right so there's some judgment here that's necessary we go through there's we went through by 14 ticks now some people will wait until it comes back in I'm going to be very influenced by what's happening with the Nike tick if we're and we were very low I think it was the tickle uh they could just take a look certainly take a little in the morning we were minus 800 and then we snapped back and if you were waiting for it to get back inside again you're not going to get tick High to take low but there's 30 ticks right I'd be high stays a virgin uh here's uh when I'm back a couple of days here here's the free here's a good example here you see the volatility when we first hit it right this doesn't count right this is not the IB this is the opening range here we're still not to to 10 30. now you see the volatility here so this takes a little judgment this is where a footprint chart can be very helpful right if you're just looking for the scalps you got eight ticks I mean you know two three a lot nothing wrong with eight ticks back down right if so it this would be an example if you were too tight with your stop you get your scalps out and your Runner is going to get stopped on the kickback and then you know do you have the it takes a little conviction and some some screen time with this to be able to re-enter and try and get back to the open or v-wop here and ultimately what do we do right here's where we hit the IV High what'd you get there there's 26 ticks right so for my bee High to IB low right and then all this happens right now once what it's the first test only after after the first test right that's where the high probability trade is now right is is it this is this is a decent example here coming back from inside Bulls I promise you are trying to get it out bears trying to get it down now here again reaction this is this is we call this riding the rail the IB rail terrible terrible place to enter very thick without goes big this is a true fist fight between bulls and bears you do not want to enter it well let me rephrase that this is a this is a a dangerous place to be entering the market either side you you might as well just flip a coin all right let me go back one more day here see I'm trying to get you an example where it failed badly but I don't have one so I'd be I well here's here's uh IB High's a virgin here's uh our first test here you got a little K uh no one's still green here here's our first test right here what do we get on the first push there's 29 takes really common to get 30 40 ticks on it but scalps out let the runner go you come right back into I know it's easy in hindsight come right back into what was clearly resistance I mean that's the opening range low that's the low of the first 30 minutes again Algos will use anything they can and they'll use that so back here to this level you got 30 ticks okay you're not disappointed I would imagine all right very again I you know I I have shown this trade to thousands of Traders right very very small percentage take it you know and it's interesting right I could show this to to a million Traders a very small percentage would take it and they're very small and each would trade it a little bit differently but I'll I'll leave it to you to decide whether or not there's a high probability event here let's just quickly as I'll buzz through a couple of the markets here here's the the ym right it's no different here same algorithm right here's the first test went went down went through by 16 right so and here we go down you get a doji here work we come back in once we snap back in right depends on the day where's the nice e where's the tick right once we're back in well there's the open right we get what was there 126 ticks are you going to get all of it no probably not but I write to the ibmid there's 89 ticks virgin I be high here this doesn't care it stays a version if it's green right that's my color palette if it's green it's untested here we get a little chop around it here's the test down we get back in 26 ticks uh we don't this stays a version here's the first test here on uh what is this one or this last week here we go up oh we go up 27 right so when it's going up like that you don't want to just take it blindly we start to come back down right often I'll wait till it comes back in back to the opening range or back to the open there's 71 ticks never test the low [Music] here's one where we fail right so this is I mean this was the crazy day so we hit it here there's a little reaction here but likely I mean best case here you got your stops out and your Runner gets takes a stop so you would be either scratch or a small loser here compared to all the days where you get a massive winner uh here's the ym here's the here's the first test of the low yeah I think you guys are starting to see it right so here here's the test right what do we get there there's uh 110 ticks here's the IV high now we're out we're out we're out here this was this would be a easy that you'd either take a stop or maybe you got scalps out here you see that this is very common right when you watch this trade long enough here this is the battle right Bulls are trying to get it to rip bears are trying to get it back in in in so now when we test it here yes you get a reaction yes there's a trade there but it's not the high probability trade it's the first test where you can take it with conviction uh this one stays yeah well here's another one all right here here's the first test you got 30 ticks there I don't know so I don't go too long here let me go back a little bit here's today all right Tuesday the 28th here's the first test in the NQ right because we how do I know because it's green green we get there we get a little squirt goes through we come back down what's there there's 45 ticks right back up right this again testing at the close of the market you wouldn't take it there nothing on the IV High the little volatility here so this would have been a loser this day right probably you're trying to get oh you might have got your scalps out you might well you actually got 20. 25.84 that's why um 28 ticks there that would have been dicey right you might have gotten your scalps out and scratched the runner dicey on that one let me bring this up a little bit here's your first test right here all right so here's the so we go here's a green green Green here it is right so what do we get there there's 117 ticks IB high does not get tested oh here's the test here you this could have been a loser this goes down all right if you were if you tried to front run it right you're stopped out if you waited for it to come back in you gotta you gotta push to the open you got 130 ticks this was an unusual day uh here this is a little hard to see but here it is if I open this up a little bit here with this is opening range here we're green and then we go to White so this is our test uh from here so here's the test you got a couple of Wicks we come back in well there's 17 ticks if you wrote it all the way to the opens often you'll see it kick to the opener or to v-wop well there's uh 300 ticks approximately um over here here's our first test here we go through I mean somebody again this is you know if you're watching a footprint this would be helpful we come through we stall we stall we stall back down right so if you're at well let's do it that way so if you're entering off of the off of it returning into the IB well there's 169 ticks here uh here it's hard to see it's green it's hard to see but here's here's the low here's where we tag it it's only green for a bar because it this is literally the tick low we go to the open there's uh what do we get well you got if you took it to the open that's 138 ticks 690 per Contra or per contract right so if you took your scalps are out and you left a runner 690 on that one okay let me just wrap up here and just show you that it doesn't matter mark it doesn't matter it's like most algorithms or it'll be consistent you're going to try and wrap it up here rty it's a little more volatile here's the here's the test this is the why you don't necessarily want to just jump or have a limit order there this you probably you probably get your scalps out and you got tagged on your your Runner got stopped so probably a scratch there end of the day so you wouldn't take that this is close right this is a bit of a front run here they're hitting at that at 10 25. all right starting to see it because I've been teaching this for some time right it's not it's not a mystery anymore again if I can figure out others can as well here's the test right here so we're green grain grain grainy right we go down right we come back in what's there that's 28 ticks uh IB High stay is a virgin and let's come over here here's uh the IB low doesn't get tested here's our first test we wait till we come back in there's uh 62 ticks now back out right it's against only the first time only the first test that's the one you can count on this is our crazy day you probably got stopped out of here right now see when when it's breaking here if now you got to have the The Experience if we're coming back here look at those candles right now this is a 450 tick on the rty that that's a pretty good rip back in if you waited until you got here again I know that's hindsight if you waited here there's 28 ticks but it's the kind of thing right when it's when it's going straight down like this you're not going to just take it blindly you got to see some signs of some strength coming back in decent but let's let's say you scratch that one or had a loser right again the amount you're making on the on the days when it hits so we stay a version here here we get oh you probably loser here or scratch here we tag it you got eight ticks so if you're running if your your scalps are at five your Runner gets stopped here so that's a scratch here we don't we just miss getting it here go back rty not quite as reliable as the others the the es and the dower incredibly accurate okay so that that's my six days there so let me just pop over to crude as well so here's crude today here's the it's very what have I got there there's a 1500 so it's green we get two like two ticks to go through right and then we go 82 ticks straight up right I behind stays a version here's the kind of day this is an example I talked about where where you're just entirely self-contained contained within the IB so the the first to get hit is the is the IV High here this goes through by a couple of ticks that happens to be open range high so it's hitting it right at 10 o'clock now different time frame right the IB the initial balance in crude is nine to ten right so we we sit here we go Coast to Coast right Coast to Coast we hit the I below that's 12 126 and then we snap from here we go to the ibmid there's another 70 tick so pretty good day here if you were doing nothing nothing but trading the first test of the IBI right you're disappointed with that day I'm going to assume not here we the IV uh low stays aversion never gets tested here and not as good today this day here you're up you're if you took it as it came back in you're likely to full full stop here right against not 100 right there are days when they're in particularly the crude right you're gonna have days where volatility is going to take it out so let's say you took your stop here you made about two grand over here you took your stop here so you're maybe you lost 300 there here we go this stays a virgin there's a front run on it here we go through by two three ticks so we come down oh let's say you took it to the to the opening Range High or the IB mid there's 60 600 ticks or 600 bucks per contract here you got a little bit here's where you got uh it's green for just an instant right because it hits it right as it hits it you get the reaction there's 19 ticks so scalps out you know Runner probably you know I wouldn't give back 19 ticks there um here well here's one where you probably took a loss here probably got stopped out here you got a little bit of a reaction maybe you got you as we came back in on the wick here maybe your scalps got out so best case this is a scratch best case okay that'll do it okay guys that's that's all I've got um let me oh I don't think there's much uh anything that's uh in the parameters here is going to be the same thing that you see here other than color choices here I won't bore you with that what I'd encourage you to do is trial it right all of our indicators seven day full working version all right put it on your chart if you're not using it put it on your chart and watch let's see trading Sim you know if you have a footprint chart all the better if you're if you're trying if you can track the nicey tick which you can in ninja all right so if you're getting that data track that look for that in the indexes particularly the es well the es and the ym NQ has its own tick but it's not it's not nowhere near as reliable as those two but uh we the the two best are the es and the ym because we can use the Nike tick in conjunction with the the location here and then looking for that reaction right so it takes a little it takes a little time to get used to it and know what to look for ideally what you're what you're looking for here is trap Traders right that don't know that they're hitting the IB so oftentimes you'll see people like here being a good example you'll see Longs will you know they're they're going for a big move here they're trapped at the top and they will they will influence the results of the trade because if they're if they're going long here not too long before they got a cover and that will further drive it down so you'll find that quite prominent and say again more additional advantage of having a footprint chart as you can see the Trap Traders here you can I mean our buy some momentum will show you stack imbalances often you'll see a stack imbalance right at the IV high and they can be on the wrong side so you can get trapped Longs here the market starts to sell off they have to cover that gets your scalps out and then if your Runner goes all the better all right guys that should give you something to work with here if you're not familiar with this hopefully I opened your eyes a little bit if you're not familiar with this trade I'm sure it didn't Sim well you get used to it that's right I think you'll like what you see okay with that I'll wish you guys a good evening and we'll talk to you next time