NWOG (New Week Opening Gap)

Also: NWOG · New Week Opening Gap

Definition

The New Week Opening Gap is the weekend price discontinuity between Friday's 4:00 PM ET settlement and Sunday's 6:00 PM ET futures re-open. It is one of the highest-authority institutional reference points ICT teaches — a gap that anchors the entire week's delivery and draws the algorithm back to its upper quadrant, midpoint (consequent encroachment), and lower quadrant.

Key characteristics

• Defined from Friday settlement to Sunday open
• Has four quadrant levels: high, upper quadrant, CE (midpoint), lower quadrant, low
• Acts as draw on liquidity when price is away from it
• Old NWOGs from previous weeks remain active reference points
• Highest-frequency interaction during Monday and Tuesday sessions
• HARD INVALIDATION — same boundary as FVG. For Premium (bearish reaction expected): bodies must not close above the gap high. For Discount (bullish reaction expected): bodies must not close below the gap low. CE is preferable, not required.
• WICKS VS BODIES — wicks do the damage, bodies tell the story. Only body closes diagnose validity.
• BODY-PLACEMENT GRADIENT — BEST: bodies at the far edge (in the expected direction) and react away. GREAT: bodies at CE / midpoint. ACCEPTABLE: bodies past CE but still inside the gap.
• FULL-CLOSURE RULE — if bodies reach the far edge of the gap, demand immediate rejection. Quick movement away or the level is dead.
• TIME-IN-GAP and overlap diagnostics apply — extended candles inside or heavy overlap = low-probability fill.

How to use

Plot Friday 4pm settlement and Sunday 6pm open as horizontal rays. Divide into quadrants. Track weekly narrative relative to these levels. Use as HTF target when price is extended. Cluster with daily liquidity pools for higher-probability setups.

GAP DISCIPLINE — these opening gaps follow the same Premium/Discount logic as FVGs. The hard invalidation is bodies closing outside the gap entirely. CE-respect is preferable, not required. Watch the bodies, not the wicks.

PREMIUM RULES — When using a Premium / SIBI / bearish FVG (expect price to reject and continue down): the HARD INVALIDATION is bodies closing above the FVG high — that ends the trade. Inside the gap, the body-placement gradient is — BEST: bodies close right at the LOW of the FVG and react away. GREAT: bodies close right at Consequent Encroachment (CE — the midpoint) and move away. ACCEPTABLE: bodies close past CE (between CE and the high), wicks may have done damage, but bodies stay inside the gap. Wicks can violate freely — wicks do the damage, bodies tell the story. CE-respect is preferable, not required; the only required boundary is the gap high.

DISCOUNT RULES — When using a Discount / BISI / bullish FVG (expect price to reject and continue up): the HARD INVALIDATION is bodies closing below the FVG low — that ends the trade. Inside the gap, the body-placement gradient is — BEST: bodies close right at the HIGH of the FVG and react away. GREAT: bodies close right at Consequent Encroachment (CE — the midpoint) and move away. ACCEPTABLE: bodies close past CE (between CE and the low), wicks may have done damage, but bodies stay inside the gap. Wicks can violate freely — wicks do the damage, bodies tell the story. CE-respect is preferable, not required; the only required boundary is the gap low.

FULL-CLOSURE RULE — if price trades to full FVG closure (bodies reach the far edge: the high of a Premium/SIBI gap or the low of a Discount/BISI gap), the level is on its last chance. Demand immediate rejection. Quick price action away. An immediate rebalance. If movement away is not immediate, the level is dead even though it has not technically closed outside. This is the tell that the algorithm is no longer respecting the inefficiency.

TIME-IN-GAP is the quality tell. If price spends extended candles parked inside the FVG, the level is high-resistance and low-probability — institutional respect is absent. Heavy overlap between consecutive candles inside the gap (each new candle sitting deep inside the previous one's range) is the same signal: the algorithm is not honoring the level cleanly. The cleanest FVG fills are decisive — wick in, body close on the correct side, displacement away.

Common mistakes

• Using only this week's NWOG — old ones matter
• Treating it as a line instead of a gap with quadrant structure
• Forgetting to re-anchor when daylight savings shifts futures close

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