Battle-Tested 15-Minute ORB Trading Strategy for Nasdaq—Rules That Actually Work
Loses money
No edge after realistic trading costs
- trades tested
- 15,900
- per trade after costs
- -2.57bp
- winners
- 14%
- years of data
- 14.6
Trades a 15-minute Opening Range Breakout (ORB) on NASDAQ futures using pending stop orders above the high and below the low of the first 15 minutes of the New York session. The stop loss is placed on the opposite side of the opening range, moves to breakeven when price reaches 50% of the opening range distance, and targets a 1:1 move equal to the full opening range height.
The exact rules we tested
- 01Instrument: NQ | Signal timeframe: 5m | Direction: both
- 02Session: 09:30-16:00 (exchange tz), flat at session end
- 03No new entries after 15:30
- 04LONG when: close > orh
- 05SHORT when: close < orl
- 06Entry: stop order at the break of the signal bar high/low (expires after 3 bars)
- 07Stop: at the orl level
- 08Target: level: orh
- 09Move stop to breakeven at +0.5R