Smart Scanners › Session and profile
Initial balance break
The initial balance is the range of the session's first hour. This fires the first time price trades outside it, in either direction, and draws the whole range as a zone.
What it looks like on a chart
A shaded band between the first hour's high and low, extended forward. The break itself is the event; the band is what was broken.
Where the definitions disagree
The hour is a choice, not a law. CBOT's own study guide says the length is instrument-dependent — “one hour in CBOT grain futures… one hour and 40 minutes” in financials — so the length we used is stated on every event instead of being presented as the definition.
| Timeframe | Bars of history it reads | Settings | Events, last 30 days |
|---|---|---|---|
| M15 | 200 | — | 365 |
| M30 | 200 | — | 364 |
| H1 | 200 | — | 359 |
| H4 | 200 | — | 286 |
Not on D1. It built on a SESSION — the profile, the first hour, the prior day's extremes. On D1 a session is one bar and the question is empty.
Related scanners
- Day type what the CBOT study guide calls the day that first hour belongs to
- Session open the other session anchor: the midnight and 09:30 New York prices