Initial Balance Indicator: Formula, Settings and How to Read It
Initial Balance marks the high and the low of the first hour of each session, the classic Market Profile definition, and projects both levels across the rest of that session. The duration is configurable and defaults to 60 minutes.
Senzoukria · Indicators · Updated September 2026
Initial Balance ships with the Senzoukria desktop app, in the Profiles & levels group of the indicator catalogue. It is drawn on the price chart.
What Initial Balance measures
The indicator keeps the bars whose timestamps fall inside the opening window of the session and takes the highest high and the lowest low among them. The two levels run from the session's first bar to the end of that session, or to the right edge for the session still in progress. When a session holds no bar at all inside the window, for instance because history was loaded mid-day, nothing is drawn: a partial opening range presented as a complete one would misstate it.
The formula, as implemented
This is not a description of how the indicator is usually defined elsewhere — it is what the shipped code computes, documented next to the implementation:
Initial Balance : high/low des barres de la PREMIÈRE HEURE de session (défaut 60 min — la définition classique du Market Profile, paramétrable). Niveaux tracés de la première barre de la session au bout de la session (bord droit pour la session courante). Session sans aucune barre dans la fenêtre IB (chargement en cours de séance) → pas de niveau : un IB partiel serait un mensonge.
How to read it
- The width of the band describes the opening range: a wide initial balance leaves distant references for the day, a narrow one keeps both levels close to price.
- Trading above the high or below the low is an extension of the opening range. The indicator marks the threshold and does not qualify the move.
- Price returning inside after an extension puts both levels back in front of the market as the nearest opening references.
- A session that never trades beyond either level spent the day inside its first hour's range, which describes the shape of the session rather than its direction.
- Comparing today's band with those of the previous sessions shows whether this opening hour was wider or narrower than recent ones.
Parameters and defaults
IB duration (min) defaults to 60 and can be set from 5 to 240 in 5-minute steps. A shorter window gives a narrower band that price leaves earlier; a longer one covers more of the session and leaves less range outside it. The setting changes what the term means on your chart, so keep it fixed when you compare sessions. The colour defaults to #26c6da.
| Parameter | Type | Default | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| IB duration (min) | number | 60 | 5 – 240 |
What it does not show
The window is counted in minutes from the session open, so with tick, volume or range bars the number of bars inside it changes from session to session and the band is only as precise as those bars. Missing bars at the open shift the band with no visual warning. The levels are extremes and carry no volume: the price that produced the high may have traded once. The opening window is measured from the 17:00 CT session open, so an instrument on another schedule needs its duration reconsidered.
Using it in Senzoukria
Add it from the Indicators panel of any footprint chart or candle chart. It runs on futures data from Rithmic or Databento and on crypto pairs from Binance and Bybit, on the same engine — the calculation does not change with the venue, only the data feeding it does. Market data subscriptions are billed by the provider, separately from the app.
Related indicators
- Rolling VPOC — Profiles & levels
- Session POC (developing) — Profiles & levels
- Session VAH/VAL (developing) — Profiles & levels
- Session Open — Profiles & levels
- Prior Session H/L/C — Profiles & levels
- Overnight High/Low — Profiles & levels
See the full indicator library, or start with the order flow guide if you are new to reading aggression, delta and absorption.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the initial balance in Market Profile?
- The initial balance is the high and low of a session's opening period, traditionally the first hour. It leaves two reference prices the rest of the session either stays inside or extends beyond. Here the period defaults to 60 minutes and can be set anywhere from 5 to 240.
- Why is the initial balance missing on some sessions?
- The levels are drawn only when the chart actually holds bars inside the opening window. If history was loaded after that window had passed, or the feed has no bars for those minutes, nothing is drawn instead of a band computed from whatever bars happen to be there.
- Should the initial balance be 30 or 60 minutes?
- Both are in use; 60 minutes is the classic Market Profile definition and the default here. A 30-minute window gives a narrower band that price leaves more often, while 60 minutes covers more of the opening activity. Whichever you pick, keep it constant across sessions, since the setting changes what the band represents.