ICT Opening Gaps

The ICT Opening Gaps [MK] indicator plots key gap areas derived from the Inner Circle Trader (ICT) methodology, serving as price magnets and institutional points of interest. It automatically identifies and visualizes various opening gaps and volume imbalances across different timeframes to aid in intraday decision-making and price action analysis.

Usage

The indicator can be used to identify liquidity voids and potential reversal or continuation zones. Traders often monitor these levels as price tends to gravitate toward them or react strongly upon contact.

• Daily Volume Imbalances: Identifies gaps between the close of one daily candle and the open of the next. If only wicks exist between these prices, it is marked as a volume imbalance.
• New Week Opening Gap (NWOG): Highlights the gap between Friday's close (16:59 EST) and Sunday's open (18:00 EST). The indicator can show the current gap and a customizable number of historical gaps.
• New Day Opening Gap (NDOG): Displays the gap created between the daily close (16:59 EST) and the restart (18:00 EST).
• RTH Opening Gap: Plots the gap between the 16:59 close and the 09:30 EST session open. It includes an optional visual box indicating whether the gap is up or down.
• 09:30 Opening Line: A horizontal reference line from the New York session open price used to measure gap deviations.

Details

This tool automates the manual process of drawing ICT-specific levels.

• Volume Imbalances: The script calculates these from the Daily timeframe and projects them onto lower timeframes (LTF). It includes a mitigation feature where the box color or visibility changes once price has fully traded through the imbalance.
• Session Timing: The script uses New York time (EST/EDT) as the standard for ICT concepts. It tracks the specific 16:59 to 18:00 transition for daily/weekly gaps and the 09:30 opening for RTH gaps.
• Visual Management: To maintain chart cleanliness, users can limit the maximum number of boxes displayed and toggle historical gaps for each category.

Settings

Enable/Disable Section

• Daily Volume Imbalance: Toggles the display of Daily volume imbalances.
• NMOG/NWOG/NDOG: Toggles New Month, New Week, and New Day opening gaps respectively.
• Show Previous Gaps: Sets the number of historical gaps to display for each category.
• RTH Opening Gap: Enables the gap box between the 4:00 PM close and 9:30 AM open.
• RTH Opening Gap Deviations: Displays standard deviation levels (e.g., 2.5 and 4) based on the opening gap size.

Daily Volume Imbalances

• Maximum VI Box Displayed: Limits the number of volume imbalance boxes on the chart.
• Volume Imbalance Box/Border: Customizes colors for the imbalance zones.
• Fully Mitigated Box/Border: Sets the color for imbalances that have been completely filled by price action.
• Dont Show Daily Volume Imbalance on top of NWOG: Prevents visual overlap by prioritizing the New Week Opening Gap.

Gap Customization (NMOG, NWOG, NDOG)

• Current/Box/Border Colors: Individual color settings for the active and historical gap zones.
• Midline: Toggles and formats the 50% equilibrium line of the gap.
• Show H/L price labels: Displays the specific price levels for the gap boundaries.

FAQ

How can I access the ICT Opening Gaps [MK]? You can get access on the LuxAlgo Library for charting platforms like TradingView, MetaTrader (MT4/MT5), and NinjaTrader for free.

What is the difference between an NDOG and an NWOG? The NDOG (New Day Opening Gap) occurs daily between the electronic close and the next day's open, while the NWOG (New Week Opening Gap) specifically tracks the gap created over the weekend.

Why are some volume imbalances disappearing? If mitigation settings are enabled, the indicator will hide or change the color of imbalances once price has fully traded through them (buy side and sell side), signifying the void has been filled.