ICT NWOG and NDOG: New Week and New Day Opening Gaps Explained

ICT NWOG and NDOG explained: how to mark the new week and new day opening gaps, why the 50% line matters, and how traders use them for bias and targets.

LSG Club · 3 November 2026 · 13 min read

In ICT trading, the NWOG (New Week Opening Gap) is the price range between Friday’s closing price and the opening price of the new week on Sunday evening, and the NDOG (New Day Opening Gap) is the range between one day’s close at 17:00 New York time and the reopening after the daily break. Both are treated as reference levels: zones price often comes back to, reacts at or trades through with intent. This guide from LSG Club, a free journal built for ICT traders, explains how to mark both gaps, why the 50% line matters, how to use them for bias and targets, and where they mislead.

The short version: mark the gap from the close to the open, draw its midpoint, keep the most recent few on the chart, and treat them as levels to plan around rather than as signals to trade blindly. An opening gap tells you where price may react; the rest of your analysis tells you whether it should.

What is an opening gap in ICT?

An opening gap is a range of prices that was never traded because the market was closed. When trading resumes at a different price from the last close, the space between the two prices is the gap. ICT (Michael J. Huddleston) treats these ranges as a kind of PD array: a reference area in the ICT PD array matrix alongside fair value gaps, order blocks and old highs and lows.

The important difference from a fair value gap is how the gap forms. A fair value gap is a three-candle imbalance created while the market is open, usually by displacement. An opening gap is created by time: the market closed at one price and reopened at another. No candle pattern is needed, only the close and the open.

NWOG: New Week Opening Gap

The NWOG is the range between the last price of the week on Friday and the first price of the new week when the market reopens on Sunday. In index futures, which is where ICT teaches the concept most often, that is the Friday close at 17:00 New York time and the Sunday open at 18:00 New York time. In spot forex the week usually reopens around 17:00 New York time on Sunday. Over a weekend, news and positioning can move the opening price well away from Friday’s close, so the NWOG can be large.

NDOG: New Day Opening Gap

The NDOG is the same idea on a daily scale. Index futures pause every weekday from 17:00 to 18:00 New York time; the range between the 17:00 close and the 18:00 reopening is the new day opening gap. In spot forex there is no full pause, but liquidity thins and spreads widen around the 17:00 New York rollover, and a small gap can appear there on many broker feeds. NDOGs are usually much smaller than NWOGs and matter mainly for intraday work.

How to mark an NWOG step by step

Open a chart that shows the weekend clearly, such as M15 or H1, so you can see the last candle on Friday and the first candle of the new week.
Find the closing price of the last Friday candle before the market closes.
Find the opening price of the first candle when the market reopens.
Draw a box between those two prices. If the new week opens higher, the gap sits below the open; if it opens lower, the gap sits above the open.
Draw a line at the midpoint of the box. ICT calls the 50% level of a gap its consequent encroachment, or CE.
Label the box with the week, for example “NWOG 2 Nov”, and extend it to the right.
Keep the most recent four or five NWOGs on the chart and remove older ones, so the chart shows the levels that are still relevant.

Marking an NDOG works the same way, using the 17:00 close and the reopening price each weekday. Because there is one every day, most traders keep only the last few and delete the rest at the end of the week.

Use the close and the open, not the high and the low

The gap runs from the closing price to the opening price, not from the wicks. A common mistake is to draw the box from Friday’s high or low to Sunday’s first wick. That makes the zone wider and moves the midpoint, so the level you plan around is no longer the one ICT traders are watching.

Different feeds show different gaps

In futures the close and open are exchange prices and every chart shows the same gap. In spot forex and CFDs, each broker builds its own candles, and the weekend close and open can differ by a few pips between feeds. Some brokers also show the Sunday open with wide spreads. If precision matters to you, mark the gap on a futures chart of the same market (for example the euro futures for EURUSD) or at least use the same feed every week.

Why the 50% line matters

The consequent encroachment of an opening gap is the level ICT traders watch most closely. The common reading is that price often trades back to a recent opening gap, and the midpoint is where the reaction tends to show if it is going to happen. A gap that price fills completely and closes through has lost most of its relevance; a gap whose midpoint holds keeps acting as a reference.

This is the same logic traders use with the 50% line of a fair value gap. The midpoint is a simple way to divide a zone into its upper and lower halves, which links the gap to premium and discount: above the midpoint of a range is premium, below it is discount.

How traders use NWOG and NDOG

Opening gaps are levels, not setups. Traders combine them with the rest of their analysis in a few ways.

As a magnet — when the new week opens away from Friday’s close, many traders expect price to return toward the gap at some point in the week. That makes the gap a possible draw on liquidity or a first target.
As support or resistance — when price comes back to a previous NWOG from above, the gap and its midpoint can act as support; from below, as resistance.
As a bias filter — price holding above the latest NWOG’s midpoint suggests the week is trading in a stronger position; holding below suggests weakness. It is one input, not a verdict.
As confluence — an opening gap that overlaps an order block, a fair value gap or an old high or low is a stronger level than any of them on its own.
As a reason to wait — price sitting inside a fresh gap is often choppy, because both sides are still testing the range. Many traders avoid new trades in the middle of an unfilled gap.

NWOG and the weekly profile

ICT’s weekly profiles describe how the high and low of the week tend to form. The NWOG gives those templates a reference point. In a bullish week, an early drop back into the NWOG that holds its midpoint is one way the low of the week can form; in a bearish week, a rally into the gap that fails can form the high. Treat it as a scenario to watch for, not a rule.

NDOG and the daily bias

For intraday work the NDOG plays a similar role to the New York midnight open: it is a reference for whether price is trading above or below the start of the new trading day. The ICT daily bias tutorial explains how traders combine such references with the previous day’s high and low and the higher-timeframe draw. In the Power of 3 model, a raid back into the NDOG against the daily bias can be part of the manipulation phase.

NWOG vs NDOG vs the opening range gap

NWOG — Friday close to Sunday open. Large, formed once a week, relevant for several weeks. Used for weekly bias and swing targets.
NDOG — the 17:00 New York close to the reopening after the daily break. Small, formed every weekday, relevant for a few days. Used for intraday references.
Opening range gap — on equity index futures, ICT also marks the gap between the previous regular-session close and the 09:30 New York equity open. It is a separate concept used mainly for the New York morning.

All three share the same mechanics: a close, an open, the range between them and its midpoint. What changes is the time they span and therefore how long they stay relevant. If you are unsure when each session opens and closes in your own time zone, the forex session times guide lists them in EST and UTC, and the Kill Zone time converter does the conversion for you.

Worked example: an NWOG on EURUSD

The prices below are illustrative, chosen to show how the gap is marked and used, not taken from a real week.

Marking the gap

EURUSD closes the week on Friday at 1.0850. Over the weekend there is unexpected news, and the market reopens on Sunday at 1.0874. The NWOG runs from 1.0850 to 1.0874, 24 pips wide, with its consequent encroachment at 1.0862. Because the week opened higher, the gap sits below the current price.

How the week can develop

On Monday price rallies to 1.0895, then during the Tuesday London session it drops back into the gap and trades down to 1.0860, just below the midpoint, before rallying again with displacement. The gap and its midpoint acted as support, and the Tuesday low near 1.0860 may become the low of the week. A trader with a bullish weekly bias might have treated the return to the gap as the area to look for a long setup, with the plan invalidated if price closed below 1.0850, the bottom of the gap.

The case where the gap fails

Now suppose price drops into the gap on Tuesday, trades straight through 1.0850 with large bearish candles and keeps falling. The gap has been filled and closed through with intent. It no longer supports price, and the weekend move higher has been fully reversed. Traders who planned around the gap holding would be stopped out, and the useful information is that the weekly bias may need revising. A gap is a level to react to, not a promise that price will bounce.

Common mistakes with opening gaps

Drawing the gap from wicks instead of from the close and the open, which moves the midpoint.
Mixing feeds — marking the gap on one broker’s chart and trading on another where the weekend prices differ.
Keeping every gap ever drawn — after a few weeks the chart is full of boxes and every price has a “level” nearby.
Trading the gap on its own — entering at the midpoint only because price touched it, without bias, structure or a confirmation on a lower timeframe.
Expecting every gap to fill — many gaps fill within the week, but some stay open for a long time, and a gap that stays open can itself be a sign of strength.
Ignoring the Sunday spread — the first minutes after the reopen often have wide spreads and thin liquidity; entries there carry extra cost and risk.

Opening gap checklist

The latest NWOG is marked from Friday’s close to the new week’s open, with its midpoint.
The last four or five NWOGs are on the chart; older ones are removed.
This week’s NDOGs are marked from the 17:00 New York close to the reopening.
The gaps are marked on one consistent feed, ideally the futures chart for precision.
Each gap is compared with your other levels: order blocks, fair value gaps, old highs and lows.
The weekly and daily bias are written down, and you know which side of each gap supports them.
A gap is only a place to look for a setup; the entry itself needs structure and confirmation.

Trading involves risk. Opening gaps are reference levels that work often enough to plan around and fail often enough to need a stop every time; practise marking them on past weeks or a demo account before relying on them, and keep the risk per trade small.

Reviewing opening gaps in your journal

Whether opening gaps help you is an empirical question. For each trade near an NWOG or NDOG, record which gap it was, whether price reacted at the edge or at the midpoint, the session, and the result in R. Over a couple of months you will see whether the midpoint reactions you expect show up on your markets, and whether trades taken at a gap do better than the rest. Many traders also find that the gaps matter more on index futures than on spot forex, which only your own records can confirm. Gaps that price leaves with force are often a sign of ICT displacement, the move that confirms who is in control. The ICT concepts reference lists the other PD arrays these gaps are combined with.

FAQ

What is NWOG in ICT?

NWOG stands for New Week Opening Gap: the price range between Friday’s close and the new week’s opening price on Sunday. ICT traders mark it with its 50% line, keep the most recent few on the chart, and use them as reference levels for support, resistance and targets.

What is NDOG in ICT?

NDOG stands for New Day Opening Gap: the range between one day’s close at 17:00 New York time and the reopening after the daily break, at 18:00 New York time in index futures. It is the daily version of the NWOG and is mainly used as an intraday reference.

Do NWOG and NDOG gaps always fill?

No. Many opening gaps are revisited within days, but there is no rule that every gap fills. Some stay open for weeks, and a gap that price refuses to return to can itself say something about the strength of the move. Treat a fill as a possibility to plan for, not a certainty.

Are opening gaps useful in forex?

They can be, but forex gaps are usually smaller than in index futures, and the exact prices depend on the broker’s feed. Weekend gaps on major pairs are often a few pips; daily gaps at the 17:00 rollover are smaller still. Many traders mark the gaps on the matching futures chart for consistency.

What is the difference between an NWOG and a fair value gap?

A fair value gap forms while the market is open, from a three-candle imbalance during a fast move. An NWOG forms while the market is closed, from the difference between the weekly close and the weekly open. Both are marked as zones with a 50% line, and traders often look for places where the two overlap.