Opening Range Breakout: 0DTE Options Trading Strategy Explained

The opening range is becoming a favorite tool among traders, specifically short-term options traders looking to capitalize on the market’s initial momentum with 0DTE options. Early price action during the first 60 minutes of the trading day is often used to trigger a trade to follow the day’s trend.

The Opening Range Breakout (ORB) strategy uses a breakout above or below the early trading range. ORB strategies are gaining popularity with 0DTE options traders who use the breakout as a buy or sell signal in the direction of the opening range breakout.

This article explains the opening range and how to use breakouts to enter directional trades with options. We’ll also explore the backtested results of multiple ORB breakout examples and show how to automate the best backtested ORB entry signal, combining a bullish or bearish breakout into a single automated strategy.

What is the Opening Range?

The opening range is the price range (high and low) that forms during the early part of the trading day. Traders typically establish an opening range by calculating and comparing the high and low of the first 15, 30, or 60 minutes of the trading day. 

For example, assume SPX opens at 5,001. By 10:00 am EST, the high and low of the day are 5,004 and 4,995. The 30-minute opening range is 5,004 - 4,995, for a range width of 9 points.

Using this 30-minute opening range, a move above 5,004 or below 4,995 after 10:00 am is considered a breakout of the opening range.

How to trade the Opening Range Breakout

The Opening Range Breakout (ORB) strategy uses the price move out of the opening range to determine a directional bias. A trading signal is generated when the underlying’s price breaks out of the high or low of the opening range and triggers a new position.

An ORB breakout strategy typically follows the direction of the breakout. A break of the opening range high triggers a bullish position, and a break of the opening range low triggers a bearish position.

In the image example above, the initial breakout above the opening range high at 10:17 am would trigger a bullish position (either a long call, short put spread, or long call spread).

Backtesting the Opening Range Breakout

It can be difficult to identify a profitable strategy to trade confidently. Options backtesting lets us test  0DTE and next-day options strategies using 1-minute data to see the historical performance of every trade.

Finding a successful opening range breakout strategy can be especially challenging, as there are multiple opening range time frames and nearly limitless combinations of position setups.

Opening Range Breakout 15/30/60 minute backtest details & results

As an example, and to demonstrate how to optimize backtest inputs to find the best combination of settings, we tested multiple position variations using the 15, 30, and 60 minute opening range. The backtest results below were the best performing position settings, using a $15 wide 0DTE credit spread.

A short put spread is opened at the opening range low price on a breakout of the opening range high (blue line in the backtests below). A 0DTE short call spread is opened at the opening range high price on a breakout of the opening range low (orange line below). The grey line shows the results when combining the two strategies. Only one position is opened per day (whichever breakout happens first).

In addition, a minimum opening range width of at least 0.2% of the underlying's price was added to ensure the opening range is wide enough to generate a tradeable signal.

All position settings were the same; all that changed was the opening range time period.

‍

15-minute ORB Combined Strategy Results

• Total P/L: $19,053
• Max Drawdown: -$7,602
• Win Rate: 78.1%
• Average P/L: $35/trade
• Profit Factor: 1.17

30-minute ORB Combined Strategy Results

• Total P/L: $19,555
• Max Drawdown: -$8,306
• Win Rate: 82.6%
• Average P/L: $31/trade
• Profit Factor: 1.19

60-minute ORB Combined Strategy Results

• Total P/L: $30,708
• Max Drawdown: $-3,231
• Win Rate: 88.8%
• Average P/L: $51/trade
• Profit Factor: 1.59

While all three combined backtest strategies were profitable, the 60-minute ORB performed best by far, with a higher win rate (89.4%) and profit factor (1.44), and nearly 3x higher total P/L with significantly less drawdown than the 15 and 30-min backtests.

Automating a Backtested Opening Range Breakout Strategy

Using the 60-minute ORB backtest, we can instantly generate a bot that automatically trades the combined backtested strategy to open a position immediately when a breakout occurs above or below the opening range.

Opening Range Breakout 60m Bot strategy details

• Break of upper range: $15 wide Short Put Spread
  
  • Short Put: $0.01 below 60-minute opening range low or lower
• Break of lower range: $15 wide Short Call Spread
  
  • Short Call: $0.01 above 60 minute opening range high or higher

Click to view and clone the bot: Opening Range Breakout 60m