Carlo Zarattini identified the 5-Minute Opening Range Breakout (ORB) as the most profitable S&P 500 (ES) ORB strategy, using the 9:30–9:35 a.m. ET opening range. A 5-minute live chart in the right column of the blog shows a single ES session, from 7:15 a.m. to 7:15 p.m. ET, represented by 144 five-minute bars. A live ES feed adds each new bar from left to right within this fixed window. The window remains in place until 7:15 a.m. ET on the next trading day, when a new one opens. The footer identifies the next update. Moving the vertical grey dashed slider across the chart reveals the exact time, while the data line below the chart's title displays each bar's OHLC values.
Blue shading covers the period before 9:30 a.m. ET and from 4:15 p.m. ET onward. The prior session's opening range, midpoint, and targets extend across the morning shade and stop at 9:30. A blue 20-bar EMA follows the bars and restarts at 9:30. Zarattini's 5-Minute Opening Range Breakout trades the 9:30–9:35 bar. A close below the open signals a short, which remains in effect even if price later breaks above the range. A close above the open signals a long, which remains in effect even if price later breaks below the range. A 9:35 a.m. close equal to the 9:30 a.m. open is a doji and generates no trade setup.
Entry is a buy stop at a bullish 5-minute bar's high or a sell stop at a bearish bar's low, plus or minus your broker's bid-ask spread. The ORB band remains grey until that level is reached, then turns greenish above the high or reddish below the low, with the color remaining unchanged thereafter. The green numbers above the high and red numbers below the low represent profit targets, each set at a further multiple of half the opening range; the number therefore indicates the reward in those units.
Zarattini’s stop is set at 10% of the daily ATR (14) from the entry price (blue dashed horizontal SL line), as indicated by the blue bold figure in the bottom-left corner. Evaluate whether this automatically generated stop level is appropriately positioned relative to nearby imbalances (FVGs) and liquidity levels (previous swing highs and lows on the 5-minute chart), and adjust it if necessary. If the stop is not hit, the trade exits at 4:00 p.m. ET. The reward at the selected target, divided by the stop-loss distance, determines the risk/reward ratio (R), with approximately 1% of equity at risk per trade. Aim for a risk/reward ratio of at least 2R.
The 4:00 p.m. exit follows Larry Williams’ day-trading advice, HTTC (Hold to the Close). A short scalping clock often misses the larger trend, while the wide-range days that make this setup more profitable often finish at their extremes, allowing the trade to run. Zarattini’s 5-minute ORB strategy may perform even better with a straightforward daily directional bias, traded only after Crabel narrow-range days (ideally NR7 or IDnr4), considering liquidity ranges on the hourly chart, or with entries refined using ICT entry models and time macros.