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Session Open — Profiles & levels, on the price chart.
What Session Open measures
The level is a single field, the open of the first bar after the session boundary, with no averaging or aggregation involved. Because sessions are split on the CME anchor, the line for a given trading day starts the previous afternoon and covers the overnight hours as well as the regular session. Every session gets its own level, so a chart showing several days displays several separate horizontal segments rather than one continuous line.
The formula, as implemented
This is not how the indicator is usually defined elsewhere — it is what the shipped code computes, documented next to the implementation:
Open de session : le prix d'OUVERTURE de la première barre de chaque session (17:00 CT — canon : l'open du jour d'un future CME est l'open de session, pas minuit), tracé sur toute la session.
How to read it
- Price above the session open means the session is net higher than where it began, whatever happened in between; below it, the reverse.
- How often price crosses the line describes how rotational the session has been: repeated crossings show a market turning around its opening price.
- The distance from the line is the session's move so far, which is why it pairs with range projections anchored to the same price.
- A session that opens far from the previous close leaves the open and that close as two distinct references; read them as two levels, not one.
- The line is fixed as soon as the first bar of the session prints and never updates afterwards.
What it does not show
The level is only as correct as the session split: when the chart's history begins inside a session, the first loaded bar is not that session's open, and nothing signals the difference. The price carries no volume or participation information. And because the open is taken at 17:00 CT, it will not match platforms that cut the trading day at midnight or at the regular-hours open.
Related indicators
- Rolling VPOC — Profiles & levels
- Session POC (developing) — Profiles & levels
- Session VAH/VAL (developing) — Profiles & levels
- Initial Balance — Profiles & levels
- Prior Session H/L/C — Profiles & levels
- Overnight High/Low — Profiles & levels
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Frequently asked questions
- What time does a CME futures session open?
- At 17:00 Central Time, on the afternoon before the calendar trading day. This indicator uses that boundary to decide where each session starts, so the opening price it draws is the first print after 17:00 CT and not the price at midnight or at the regular-hours open.
- Why does the session open differ from the daily open on another platform?
- Platforms differ in where they cut the trading day. A daily open taken at midnight, or at the regular-hours open, will not match a session open taken at 17:00 CT. This indicator follows the futures convention in which the day's open is the session open.
- Does the session open line include overnight trading?
- Yes. Since the session begins at 17:00 CT, the line is already drawn through the overnight hours and continues through the regular session until the next session boundary. Each session appears as its own horizontal segment.