What the first fifteen minutes actually tell you
The opening range is not a crystal ball — but it does show whether overnight gap traders are still in control.
The opening range is simply the high and low printed in a chosen window — we use fifteen minutes for cash equities in most drills. Its value is comparative: does price reclaim the gap midpoint, hold the prior close, or stall under the first burst of volume?
When a gap-down open spends the first quarter-hour chopping below the prior close with shrinking range, gap-and-go bulls are often already late. When a gap-up open dips into the void and finds buyers before the range expands higher, the fill thesis is under pressure.
None of this replaces a written plan. In the Session Opens Workshop we pause replays at minute fifteen and ask each trader to state invalidation out loud. Hesitation in that moment usually mirrors hesitation with live capital.
Carry the same pause into Monday’s open: mark the range, name the gap, then decide whether your setup still exists.