In short: NinjaTrader 8 and an intraday chart. That is all Live IB Range needs.
Intraday charts only: on a daily or longer chart the opening window sits inside a single bar.
Updates on each bar close, every price change, or every 1, 5, 15 or 30 minutes.
Example 60-minute IB: choose whether its lines carry on for the rest of the session.
Add the indicator to the same chart as many times as you like, one IB range each.
Carry them forward to today, or end each day's lines at its own session close.
You might ask why this is free, and what the catch is. There is none. We want to change the market for third-party NinjaTrader tools, and giving our work away is part of how we do it.
To say it plainly, this market is overpriced and full of low-quality tools with missing features and bugs. Vendors charge hundreds of dollars for simple indicators. No indicator, add-on or tool will make you profitable. A good one makes your trading environment better, and you know that already, or you would not be here looking.
Our goal is the highest-quality products we can build, tools that make a real difference on the chart. We get there by testing hard, on live charts before every release, with feedback from the traders who use them and a close read of what the forums complain about. We offer a full refund within 14 days, we adapt tools for customers who ask, and we give most of our work away.
Most of our tools are free for a reason. We want you to try them, see the quality and the features for yourself, and not spend a dollar with us until you think a tool deserves it. We are a business and we intend to make money, by solving real problems for traders.
So yes, Live IB Range is completely free, no strings attached. If you like it, there are more free tools and paid ones priced well under what is usual in this market. If you have any questions, please email us at support@usefulindicators.com.
No card, no license key, no expiry. Nothing to cancel because nothing was started.
Download freeYour download is on your order page right after checkout.
Four ways traders work the opening range. None of them is a signal; the entries, the stops and the discipline are still yours.
A break and hold above the IB high points to a day that wants higher; a break of the low, the opposite. The level is on the chart before the break, not drawn after it.
When price rotates inside the range, the extremes are where the auction turns. Fade them back toward the midpoint, with the IB zone shaded if you want it.
Once the range breaks, extensions at 100% or 200% of its size give you targets measured from the range itself. Enter the percentages you trade, Fibonacci ratios included.
Trade the London, Tokyo or Sydney open from wherever you sit. Each preset converts to your chart’s clock and follows daylight saving on both sides.
New to the Initial Balance? Read the full guide →
Can’t find the answer to your question? Email us, we answer fast.
Download the zip, then in NinjaTrader 8 go to Tools → Import → NinjaScript Add-On and pick the file. Add it to any chart from the Indicators list, where it is called LiveIBRange, and pick your session preset — most traders are done in under a minute. The step-by-step guide covers every message NinjaTrader can show and the update rule.
Genuinely free — no trial period, no locked settings, no license key, nothing to upgrade to. We sell other indicators; free tools like this one are how we show you the quality of the work first.
Six presets: US Open 9:30 and US Pre-Market 8:00 New York time, London Open 8:00 and London Pre-Market 7:00 London time, Tokyo Open 9:00 Tokyo time and Sydney Open 10:00 Sydney time. Each converts to your chart’s time and follows daylight saving on both sides. Custom takes any start time on your chart’s own clock, with no daylight-saving adjustment. The presets read your computer’s time zone, so leave NinjaTrader’s time zone setting in Tools → Options → General on System Default.
Anything from 5 to 240 minutes. 60 is the default and the classic first hour; 30 gives you the opening half hour.
Intraday tick, minute, volume and range charts, on any instrument and any data provider. On a daily or longer chart the window sits inside a single bar, so there is nothing to measure. The chart’s trading hours must include the preset’s window: a US RTH template covers only the US Open preset, so use a 24-hour template for the others.
The session, the IB high and low, the range in points and ticks, the range as a multiple of the chart’s own 14-bar ATR, the time left in the window and the status. It is off by default, and you pick the corner, font and colors.
Yes. Four plots are exposed for Strategy Builder and your own code: IB High, IB Low, IB Mid, and IB State, which is 0 while the range forms and 1 once it is complete.
Every setting of the initial balance indicator below is in its properties panel, in nine groups. The names in bold are the names you will see there.
Show IB High Line, Show IB Low Line and Show IB Mid Line each have their own color, width, line style and opacity. The lines update bar by bar until the window closes, then Extend Line After IB Closes carries them across the session with a second color, width, style and opacity of their own, so the finished range reads differently from the one still forming.
Show Extensions and Levels (% of IB range) draw extension lines above the high and below the low — 100, 200 and 300 percent of the range by default, any comma-separated list, decimals allowed — with their own color, style, width and opacity and a label on each. Show IB Zone Overlay and Show Extended Zone Overlay shade the range and the extended zone in their own colors and opacities.
Session Preset picks the opening bell: US Open 9:30 ET, US Pre-Market 8:00 ET, London Open 8:00 GMT, London Pre-Market 7:00 GMT, Tokyo Open 9:00 JST, Sydney Open 10:00 AEST, or Custom with Custom Start Hour and Custom Start Minute in your chart’s own time. A preset’s hour is converted to your chart automatically; if NinjaTrader runs on a time zone other than its default, use Custom.
IB Duration (minutes) is 60 by default, the classic first hour; set 30 for the half hour or 5 to 15 for a short ORB window, up to 240. Update Frequency runs on bar close by default, or every 1, 5, 15 or 30 minutes, or on every price change. The labels are yours too: Show Name, Show Price, Label Position, Vertical Placement, font and size, with an optional Show Label Box.
Days to Show counts today plus the earlier sessions kept on the chart — 2 by default (today and yesterday), up to 10, so nine days back — in their own Previous Days Color and Previous Days Opacity %, and Project Previous Days Forward carries yesterday’s range across today, so a previous initial balance high that still matters stays in view as a level. Today’s range always keeps the live colors, so the eye finds it first.
IBHigh, IBLow, IBMid and IBState are four plots a strategy can read. Show Info Box puts a panel in the corner you pick under Position, with the session name, the IB high and low, the range in points and ticks, the range against the chart’s ATR(14), the time remaining and the status, each row its own switch, styled with its own font, text and border colors and background opacity.
No. By default it updates once per bar, and it draws with NinjaTrader’s own drawing objects. If your chart ever lags with it on, email us: that’s a bug, not normal.
Email support, answered by the traders who built it. Bugs get fixed — this tool gets the same updates and support as our paid indicators.
Yes, in the sense traders mean it. The initial balance is the opening range: the high and low the session sets in its first window, and the window is yours — anything from 5 to 240 minutes. The Extensions group draws levels at 100, 200 and 300 percent of the range above the high and below the low, which are the ORB targets. The breakout, and the trade, stay yours: the indicator draws the levels and never places an order.
Any of them. IB Duration takes 5 to 240 minutes: 60 is the classic Market Profile first hour and the default, 30 is the opening half hour many ES traders use, and 5 or 15 give the short windows scalpers trade breakouts from. The info box shows the range as a multiple of the chart’s own 14-bar ATR, so you can see at once whether the window you chose produced a normal range or an unusually wide one.
Yes. Session Preset has US Open (9:30 ET), US Pre-Market (8:00 ET), London Open (8:00 GMT), London Pre-Market (7:00 GMT), Tokyo Open (9:00 JST), Sydney Open (10:00 AEST) and Custom with your own start hour and minute, with daylight saving handled on both sides. For two sessions on one chart, add the indicator twice with different presets.
The indicator exposes four plots for Strategy Builder and your own NinjaScript — IB High, IB Low, IB Mid and IB State, which reads 0 while the range forms and 1 once it is set — so a strategy can read the levels directly. The indicator itself never places, changes or automates orders.
The initial balance is Market Profile’s name for the high and low of the first hour; an opening range is the same idea with any window — 5, 15 or 30 minutes are common. Live IB Range draws either, because the window is a setting. The guide’s comparison explains when each is the better reference, and where VWAP fits beside them.
Yes. Days to Show counts today plus the earlier sessions kept on the chart: 2 by default (today and yesterday), up to 10, so nine days back. Earlier days get their own Previous Days Color and Previous Days Opacity %, and Project Previous Days Forward, on by default, carries their ranges across today.
Free, no card, no license key. Download it, import it, and the initial balance draws itself on your chart in under a minute.
Not for you if you want the tool to tell you when to buy and sell. Live IB Range draws the range the session opens with; the trade is yours.
Pairs well with Free VWAP indicator · Key levels indicator (Intraday Reference Levels) · Asian range indicator (SessionLevels) · Free EMA cloud indicator (EMA Color Zones) · Current price line indicator (CurrentPriceLine) · Risk reward tool for Chart Trader (ATM Risk Reward)
Tell us what you want to see on the chart. You get a fixed price and a written plan before any work starts.
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