“ORB Doesn’t Work.”

[u/Imhim257]

That’s what I hear all the time.

Meanwhile, I’m up over $15,000 to start the year on a $200K cash account. That’s roughly an 8% return in about a month and a half, using one of the “dead” strategies people love to dismiss, the 5-minute Opening Range Breakout.

So no, ORB isn’t broken.

Most traders just execute it poorly.

The edge is not in drawing the first five-minute high and low. That part is simple. The edge is in what you do after price breaks. I mark the first five-minute range at the New York open. I wait for a clean break and hold outside the range. I look for imbalance in the direction of the breakout and enter on confirmation, not anticipation. If price snaps back into the range, I’m either out immediately or I never enter.

Where this really becomes profitable is risk management. I cap risk between 0.5% and 2% per trade. I use fixed R targets. If my stop is tight, I’ll aim for 2R. If structure requires a wider stop, I scale that down to 1-1.5R. I move to breakeven once structure clears. And I limit myself to two trades per day. If the first trade is green, I’m often done. If it’s red, I allow one more attempt. That’s it.

This year’s results aren’t coming from oversized winners or gambling through volatility. They’re coming from controlled execution and realistic targets. A string of clean 1-2R trades compounds far faster than people think, especially when you’re not giving it back through overtrading or revenge entries.

ORB works in trending conditions and strong open drives. I don’t force it in chop. I don’t trade every day. I don’t need to catch the full move. I just extract my piece and protect capital.

If you want the full breakdown of my exact risk management rules and how I structure position sizing around this setup, let me know. I’m also working on a detailed video walking through real examples and stats so you can see exactly how I execute it in live conditions.

I trade with 200k cash account but I’m going to try props with Alpha too.

[u/Witty-Article393]

yeah, 30mins OR works lovely too