New Day Opening Gap
Also: NDOG, new day opening gap
Visual Context Required
This concept requires chart visuals for full understanding.
The New Day Opening Gap (NDOG) is the price gap formed between the closing price of the previous futures session at 5:00pm Eastern and the reopening price at 6:00pm Eastern, after the one-hour daily maintenance break. It forms Monday through Thursday; Friday is excluded because the NWOG (New Week Opening Gap) supersedes it. The closing price and opening price must show meaningful separation to be useful — one or two ticks are insufficient. The NDOG is used within the current trading week only; once the week ends, that NDOG is no longer of interest. ICT's practice is to use the very first NDOG of each new trading week (Monday's NDOG from Sunday 6pm open) and extend it through the entirety of the week as a reference level. The NDOG functions as a support/resistance/fair value zone that the algorithm continues to reprice to even after the gap has been nominally filled, acting as confluence with other PD arrays. It is one of the tools ICT uses to corroborate analysis, not as a standalone trigger.
Identification8
- Use a 1- or 5-minute chart with electronic trading hours enabled.
- Identify the 5:00pm Eastern closing price of the previous session.
- Identify the 6:00pm Eastern opening price of the new session (one hour later after maintenance break).
- Gap between those two price points = NDOG. Requires meaningful separation (more than 1-2 ticks).
- Apply Monday through Thursday only; skip Friday (NWOG takes precedence).
- ICT uses primarily the first NDOG of each trading week (Monday), extending it through the full week.
- Mark the CE (consequent encroachment) at the 50% midpoint of the gap.
- If the gap is formed from 6pm lower than 5pm close: 5pm close = NDOG high, 6pm open = NDOG low. Reverse if gap forms to the upside.
Entry4
- NDOG is a confluence/supporting factor, not a standalone entry trigger.
- When price revisits the NDOG high or low, look for it to act as support or resistance aligned with other PD arrays.
- Asian session scalp opportunity: if gap has opened lower, a trade up to the NDOG high from within or below the gap is a bread-and-butter scalp setup.
- Body closes above/below the NDOG levels carry more weight than wicks — 'the wicks do the damage but the body tells the story.'
Stop1
- Stop placement determined by the combined PD array entry context, not by the NDOG alone.
Target2
- NDOG high or low (the opposing boundary) as immediate target when price is trading inside the gap.
- NDOG levels used as supporting S/R for larger PD array targets.
Invalidation2
- Once the trading week ends, that week's NDOG levels are discarded — they are not carried into the following week.
- Very small separations (1–2 ticks) are not considered meaningful NDOGs.
Inferred Conditions (Unvalidated)
- A confluence of NDOG level with a FVG or order block significantly increases the probability of a reaction at that zone.
- Bodies of candles respecting the NDOG boundary (without closing through it) is a signature of algorithmic respect for the level.
ICT Quotes
"New Day opening gap, the closing price of the previous session here. So this is the 5pm session. And NDOG forms every day, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and then Friday, we don't have it there because we have the new week opening gap."
"The opening price is the very first tick or trading price. That's not random. It's offered to the market and which every trade gets filled there, that starts the beginning of the new day opening gap."
"If it's not showing a meaningful separation between the two price points, I won't even utilize it. If it's like one tick, or like two ticks, I'm not terribly excited about that."
"Once that week closes, I'm not interested in that new day opening gap anymore. The new day opening gap — I'm only interested in it for the week. When the week ends and we start a new week, I'm going to utilize the very first New Day opening gap and extend that throughout the entirety of the week."
"The wicks do the damage but the body tells the story. The bodies of these candles were not willing to even close below that swing low. So we dug down into this old New Day opening gap high, allow price to send it higher."
"I like to see them act as a supporting factor or a resistance to an idea that I have already arrived at with other PDAs or other analysis concepts. So it's not to be a Windows not panacea."
Timeframes
Version History3 versions
ICT YT - 2023-05-08 - NDOG - New Day Opening Gap - Part 1.srt
"This module is going to be discussing my new day opening gap. Just like we discovered in the new week opening gap, the new day opening gaps openings are not random than either."
First formal public introduction of NDOG as a named concept. Establishes Mon-Thu scope, 5pm/6pm reference, week-only validity, and confluence-only usage.
ICT YT - 2024-08-07 - ICT 2024 Mentorship - Lecture 03.srt
"building a reference point for Wednesday's trading and for the next five days. So that means this will overlap into next week, five trading days, not five calendar days, five trading days. Okay, if yo…"
SHELF LIFE UPDATE: The 2023 "current week only" rule is replaced by a rolling 5-trading-day shelf life per individual NDOG (holiday-adjusted). NDOGs formed mid-week can carry into the following week. NWOG shelf life is separately given as 5 weeks (with continued utility possible beyond that). This is a material operational change from the 2023 definition.
ICT YT - 2024-08-23 - ICT 2024 Mentorship - Lecture 15.srt
"wherever they're in close proximity to one another, using the data ranges, it can't be older than 60 days. That's an event horizon. It's like a black hole. It's going to draw price in to it before it …"
Lectures 13–24 additions (Aug 20–Sep 9, 2024): introduces Event Horizon concept derived from NDOG/NWOG nesting. Confirms 60-day max lookback applies to both NDOG and NWOG levels when computing Event Horizon. Layered NDOG/NWOG levels identified as congestion zones ("speed bumps") that slow price delivery. No material conflict with prior definition.
Notes
NDOG is the intraday companion to NWOG. Key distinctions: (1) NDOG resets weekly — old week's NDOGs discarded; NWOG accumulates across rolling 60 days. (2) NDOG requires meaningful separation to be actionable. (3) NDOG is most useful in the Asian session as a target for a gap-fill scalp. (4) ICT introduced NDOG in May 2023, after NWOG was formalized in March 2023 — NDOG is conceptually derived from NWOG logic applied to the daily session break. ICT references it appearing in the live Sept 12 2023 context (in the IOF deep dive file) confirming it was actively used in his analysis by Q3 2023. 2024 SHELF LIFE REFINEMENT (L03, Aug 7 2024): The 2023 definition states NDOGs are valid "within the current trading week only." The 2024 mentorship refines this to a precise rule: each NDOG has a shelf life of FIVE TRADING DAYS (not five calendar days; holidays extend by one day each). This means a mid-week NDOG can carry over into the following week. ICT's exact words: "building a reference point for Wednesday's trading and for the next five days. So that means this will overlap into next week — five trading days, not five calendar days." (L03, 00:28:11) This is a material update: the 2023 "current week only" rule is replaced by a rolling 5-trading-day shelf life per NDOG. 2024 QUADRANT APPLICATION (L03): ICT formalizes four quadrant levels inside the NDOG: (1) the low of the gap, (2) 25% level (lower quadrant), (3) 50% = consequent encroachment (CE), and (4) 75% level (upper quadrant), (5) the high of the gap. Price reactions are observed at each quadrant level. He uses a fib tool set to 0.25 and 0.75 to mark these inside the gap. A candle stopping at an exact quadrant level — "that's fucking perfect" — is evidence of algorithmic precision. 2024 BREAKAWAY GAP SIGNAL (L03): When the lower half of a NDOG stays open (price does not return to fill below the 50% CE), this is a breakaway gap signal indicating "the algorithm is really going to start spooling quickly" and "you anticipate large range expansions." This is distinct from when the gap fills completely. 2024 EVENT HORIZON — NDOG/NWOG NESTING (Lectures 15–21, Aug-Sep 2024): When two NDOG or NWOG levels are in close proximity to one another within the 60-day lookback window, their midpoint is an "Event Horizon" — a magnetic draw level that ICT describes as a "black hole" pulling price to it. The 60-day lookback applies to both NDOG and NWOG levels when computing Event Horizon candidates. When NDOG and NWOG levels are clustered together, they create congestion / "speed bumps" that slow price and increase the probability of a reversal or pause. The Event Horizon is the most precise level within that cluster. See event-horizon.yaml for full specification. 2024 CONGESTION / SPEED BUMP BEHAVIOR (Lecture 21): When multiple NDOG and NWOG levels are layered close together, they collectively function as congestion zones. ICT refers to them as "speed bumps" — price may struggle to drive through cleanly. In a bearish context, layered NDOG/NWOG above the current price slow down bullish attempts; the algorithm tends to stall and reverse at these clusters. 2025 ETH vs RTH CRITICAL DISTINCTION (Jan 10 2025 — SMC Opening Range Gaps lecture): ICT explicitly clarifies in the 2025 ORG lecture that switching between ETH and RTH chart views changes what type of gap you are looking at: - RTH chart view: shows the Opening Range Gap (ORG) — Friday RTH close to Monday RTH open - ETH chart view: shows the New Day Opening Gap (NDOG) or New Week Opening Gap (NWOG) The implication: NDOG is exclusively an ETH construct and should ONLY be identified on an ETH chart. Attempting to identify the NDOG on an RTH chart will either show nothing (the maintenance break gap does not appear) or confuse it with the ORG. Students who are looking at gaps on an ETH chart are seeing NDOG/NWOG references, not ORGs. This is not a change to the NDOG definition — it is an explicit clarification of which chart view produces which gap type. See also: opening-range-gap.yaml. 2025 SMC MIDNIGHT OPENING RANGE CONTEXT (Jan 8 2025): The SMC Midnight Opening Range (see smc-midnight-opening-range.yaml) introduces a third daily gap reference that complements the NDOG: - NDOG: 5pm close → 6pm open (daily maintenance break gap, ETH chart) - Midnight Opening Range: 12:00 AM–12:30 AM range high/low (Power Three daily anchor) These are distinct references. The NDOG captures the daily session restart gap; the midnight opening range captures the Power Three open and initial range. Both are ETH-based.
Asymmetry Notes
No directional asymmetry in formation. Directional bias determines which boundary (high or low) is the near-term target.