The Opening Read, ES and NQ.

What it reads

Our own one-minute candles for the ES and NQ front contracts, recorded through the day and night. Nothing is typed in and nothing comes from a third-party feed. Sessions follow the New York clock: the Globex day starts at 18:00 ET, Asia runs to 03:00, London to 09:30 and the regular session to 16:00.

How it is computed

Overnight inventory

The share of overnight minutes (18:00 to 09:30 ET) that closed above the prior session close. 70% or more reads LONG INVENTORY, 30% or less reads SHORT INVENTORY, anything between reads BALANCED.

First 30 minutes

R is the high minus the low from 09:30 to 10:00 ET. A close in the top 30% of R with a pullback from the open of 15% of R or less reads DRIVE UP. A close in the top 30% after the low printed first reads TEST THEN UP. The bottom 30% mirrors both as DRIVE DOWN and TEST THEN DOWN. Everything else reads TWO-SIDED.

Open location

Where the 09:30 print sits against the prior session range and value area: above range, above value, inside value, below value or below range. A print exactly on an edge counts as the inner side.

Distances and MSR

Each level is printed with its distance from the last price when the sheet was built. MSR is the mean session range, the average high minus low of the regular sessions on our tape, so 0.50 MSR is half a typical day’s travel.

Thirds

Upper, middle and lower thirds split a range into three equal parts by price.

VWAP bands

VWAP is the volume-weighted average of each minute’s typical price, (high plus low plus close) divided by 3. One SD is the volume-weighted standard deviation of those typical prices around VWAP.

Worked example: on Fri, Oct 30 0% of ES overnight minutes closed above the prior session close, so the sheet read SHORT INVENTORY.

Why that information matters

These are the reference points most session plans start from. Seeing where the night traded against yesterday, and how the first half hour behaved, turns a blank chart into a short list of levels to find on your own chart and a plain description of the open.

What it does not tell you

Every word on this sheet is a definition, not a measurement. Nothing on it was tested against what happened next, and none of it says where price goes. A part of the sheet only appears when every minute it needs is on our tape, so nothing on it is filled in by guesswork. This is a description of the session, not advice.