Session Range (Initial Balance / DR-IDR)

Session Range captures the "initial balance" of one or more trading sessions - the high/low established during the opening window - and flags the first time price breaks out of that range after the window closes. It is the building block for opening-range-breakout (ORB) and DR/IDR session strategies.

Logic

For each configured session window the indicator:

1. While the window is open, accumulates the running high/low (DR) and the running body high/low (IDR).
2. When the window closes, freezes that range.
3. For up to breakout_window_bars bars after the close, watches for the first move beyond the frozen range. With confirm: close the bar must close past the edge; with confirm: wick a high/low touch is enough. The first qualifying move up marks a long breakout, the first down marks a short - one breakout per direction, per session.

DR uses wicks; IDR uses bodies, matching the LuxAlgo DR/IDR convention.

The bounded window matters: a frozen range goes stale quickly, so a breakout fired many hours later against an outdated range carries no edge. Keeping the window tight (and confirming on close) is what separates a real session breakout from chasing noise.

Params

• range_type - dr (wicks) or idr (bodies). Drives both the emitted levels used for breakout detection.
• tz_offset_hours - shifts UTC candle timestamps into your session timezone so the windows line up with the real market clock.
• breakout_window_bars - bars after the session close during which a breakout may fire. Default 24. 0 disables the bound.
• confirm - close (close beyond the range, default) or wick (high/low touch). close is far more robust.
• sessions - the session windows themselves (name + HHMM-HHMM). Defaults to London (1000-1100), New York (1500-1600), Sydney (2200-2300), and Tokyo (0200-0300) in the offset timezone. Edited in the strategy JSON.

Output

Eight columns, prefixed with your indicator name:

• {name}_active - inside a session window right now
• {name}_complete - a session range has frozen and the window closed
• {name}_in_window - inside the post-session breakout window
• {name}_dr_high / {name}_dr_low - DR (wick) range bounds
• {name}_idr_high / {name}_idr_low - IDR (body) range bounds
• {name}_breakout_long - first long breakout this session
• {name}_breakout_short - first short breakout this session

Usage

Pair {name}_breakout_long / {name}_breakout_short as entry triggers, and use {name}_dr_high / {name}_dr_low as the breakout-execution levels so fills land at the range edge instead of the bar close. A volatility stop (ATR) keyed off the range size is the natural companion.

Pitfalls

• Set tz_offset_hours correctly. Wrong offset shifts every session window and silently produces ranges at the wrong hours.
• Prefer confirm: close. Wick-pierce breakouts fire on the noise that immediately reverses; on BTC 15m this is the difference between a profitable and a ruinous config.
• Don't stack many sessions. Four overlapping sessions produce a breakout setup every few hours and over-trade a weak edge. A single liquid session (e.g. the NY open) is usually the cleaner signal.
• One breakout per direction. A whipsaw that pierces both sides fires both a long and a short flag for that session - filter with a trend or bias condition if you only want one side.