Opening Range Breakout vs Gap Levels

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Key terms for this guide

These glossary pages cover the ideas and platform language most closely tied to this workflow.

Opening range and gap levels frame different opening questions

The opening range tells you how the market behaves after the bell. Gap levels tell you how the open separated from the prior close. Both matter, but they do not organize the session in the same way.

Use opening range when the first rotation matters most

If your workflow cares most about the first clean expansion after the open, the opening range is usually the stronger primary map.

Use gap levels when the overnight separation matters most

If the real question is whether the session will fill, reject, or accept away from the overnight gap, the gap boundaries and midpoint usually matter more than the opening range alone.