NWOG and NDOG: how ICT traders use opening gaps

Markets such as forex and index futures trade almost all week, but they do pause. Over the weekend and for a short break each day, no trades happen. When trading restarts, the first price can differ from the last one. That empty space is an opening gap, and ICT traders treat it as a useful reference level.

NWOG: New Week Opening Gap

The NWOG is the gap between Friday's last close and Sunday's first open. Its range is the area between those two prices. Many traders mark it on the chart at the start of every week and watch how price reacts when it returns to that area.

NDOG: New Day Opening Gap

The NDOG is the same idea for each day. It is the gap between the last close before the daily break (17:00 New York time) and the open at 18:00 New York time. Most days it is small. Larger ones are easier to see and to use.

The midpoint: consequent encroachment

The middle of a gap is called the consequent encroachment (CE). It is a level where price often pauses or reacts, the same way it does inside a fair value gap. Traders watch for:

price returning to the CE and reversing, which supports the gap as support or resistance;
price closing clearly through the CE, which suggests the gap is not holding.

How to read an opening gap

Mark the gap at the open: from the last close to the new open.
Draw the CE in the middle.
Note whether price opens above or below the gap, and whether it stays there.
Use it together with your premium and discount view and the day's liquidity targets.

An opening gap is a reference, not a signal. It works best when it lines up with a level you already have a reason to watch.

The Wolf Asia model (M17)

ICC Charts includes a model called Wolf Asia Session (NDOG), built on a published written description of an Asia session idea for indices and forex. In short, it works like this (New York time):

The NDOG is formed at the 18:00 open. If it is larger than 20 handles (20 points on indices, 20 pips on forex), its CE is marked.
The high and low made between 18:00 and 19:00 are marked as the first liquidity.
The trade window is 19:00 to 22:00. A setup after that time is ignored.
The setup is a sweep, a market structure shift and a displacement that leaves a gap. The entry is the middle of that gap.
Targets are measured with standard deviations of the last opposite move.

The model works on NAS100, US500, EURUSD and GBPUSD. Time comes first: a good-looking setup outside the window is not a trade.

A worked example in words

Suppose the market closes Friday at one price and opens Sunday evening higher. The space between the two is the NWOG. During the week, price falls back into that space, touches the CE and bounces. A trader who marked the gap in advance saw that level coming. Another week, price closes below the CE on the 1-hour chart and keeps going: the gap did not hold, and the trader steps aside or looks for the other side.

The same logic works on a smaller scale with the NDOG. Check the gap at 18:00 New York time, mark the CE if it is large enough, and see how price behaves around it during the Asian session.

Tips

Check that your chart uses New York time for the daily break, or the gap will be drawn at the wrong place.
Gaps are easier to see on indices than on some forex pairs, where the gap can be only a few pips.
Combine the gap with a liquidity target; a gap alone is not a reason to trade.
Keep your risk small and fixed, and test the idea on a demo account first.

In ICC Charts

The Opening Gaps layer in the terminal draws the NWOG, the NDOG and the opening range gap with their CE lines, so you do not need to mark them by hand. Open the models page to see M17 and the other models, and read the killzones guide to learn the session times.

Education only. Trading involves risk; practise on a demo account first.

Try it on a live chart

Open ICC Charts in your browser, free, with the ICT and VSA layers and the model scanner.

Open the terminal →