the IB75 strategy is a pullback entry inside the initial balance, the range price builds in the first hour of the New York session. Dan Cooke, a funded trader in the edgeful community, put out a video breaking down exactly how he trades it: where he enters, where his stop goes, and the specific 10:30AM ET condition that has to print before he'll touch it.

his rules are simple. the data underneath them is the part worth studying, because you can check every piece of it yourself. according to edgeful data, the condition behind his entry preceded a break of the level that formed first in 18 of 22 sessions across NQ and ES over the last 12 months in the NY session.

this article breaks down the IB75 strategy piece by piece: the rules, the trade he took, the report data behind it, and the filter that keeps him out of qualifying setups anyway.

table of contents

• what the IB75 strategy is
• a quick initial balance refresher
• the trade: NQ, Tuesday, July 21st
• the report behind the IB75 strategy: IB breakout by rejection
• the ending zone: the close that changes the bias
• Dan's filter: the VWAP rule
• how to check the IB75 strategy on your ticker
• the honest limits
• key takeaways: the IB75 strategy

what the IB75 strategy is

Dan's main setup is a trade he calls the IB25. he says it has made him over $30,000 in prop payouts this year. the IB75 strategy is its complement: the trade he takes when the IB25 doesn't show up.

both setups live inside the same structure, the initial balance. the IB75 version works like this: when the first hour closes back near the side of the range that formed first, Dan waits for price to pull back a quarter of the range, enters there with a limit order, and targets the level the data says is likely to break.

that one sentence contains an entry, a stop reference, a target, and a data condition. the rest of this article unpacks each piece.

a quick initial balance refresher

the IB (initial balance) is the range price builds in the first hour of the New York session, 9:30AM to 10:30AM ET. if you want the full breakdown of the range itself, our initial balance breakout strategy guide covers it in depth.

for the IB75 strategy, you split that range into quarters. those are the 25%, 50%, and 75% levels, measured from the side of the range that formed second. when the IB low forms second, the IB75 is the zone closest to the high. when the IB high forms second, the IB75 is the zone closest to the low.

so when the IB high forms first, the IB75 sits a quarter of the range below the high. that's Dan's entry level, and the high is his target.

one more definition you'll need: which side of the IB formed first. every session, either the high or the low of that first hour prints before the other one does. that single fact drives all of the data below.

the trade: NQ, Tuesday, July 21st

this one comes straight from Dan's video: a live trade on NQ, Tuesday, July 21st.

the IB high formed first, minutes after the open. price sold off hard from there and set the low late in the hour. then it turned, and when the range set at 10:30AM ET, price had closed the hour back near that high, in the top quarter of the range.

Dan placed a limit order at the 75% level of the range, with his stop under the IB50. price dipped, filled him, and he sat through some drawdown. then it turned again, and he took profit at the IB high. the whole trade was over in less than 20 minutes.

his words from the video: "that's a perfect example of not trading opinions, trading data."

notice what the structure gives him. the entry is a fixed level, the target is a fixed level, and the stop sits under another fixed level. nothing is improvised mid-trade. if you want the data-backed approach to placing that stop, we covered it in our guide on how to set a stop loss.

the report behind the IB75 strategy: IB breakout by rejection

everything above is just rules. the reason the IB75 strategy is worth writing about is the data underneath it, and that data lives in the IB breakout by rejection report. it tracks which side of the IB formed first, and which side price broke first after the range was set.

the baseline is the part most traders already know. NQ traded 258 NY sessions over the last 12 months (Aug 22, 2025 through Aug 21, 2026). split them by which side of the IB formed first:

• the high formed first in 128 of them. price broke the low first 65.62% of the time.
• the low formed first in the other 130. price broke the high first 76.92% of the time.

ES shows the same behavior over the same 12-month window in the NY session:

• the high formed first in 116 sessions. price broke the low first 67.24% of the time.
• the low formed first in 142 sessions. price broke the high first 71.13% of the time.

whichever side forms first, price usually breaks the other side (a handful of sessions break neither). that's the standard by rejection bias, and on its own it argues AGAINST a trade like Dan's. he's entering long toward a high that, in the average session, holds.

but the report has a customization that changes everything: the IB ending zone.

the ending zone: the close that changes the bias

the ending zone customization splits the IB into four zones and marks where price closed when the range finished at 10:30AM ET.

filter the same sessions down to the ones where the IB closed in the 75-100% zone, right back near the level that formed first, and the bias completely changes.

on NQ over the last 12 months in the NY session:

• IB high formed first + close in the 75-100% zone: the high broke first in 6 of 8 sessions
• IB low formed first + close in the 75-100% zone: the low broke first in 3 of 4 sessions

on ES, same window, same session:

• high formed first + 75-100% close: the high broke first in 3 of 4 sessions
• low formed first + 75-100% close: the low broke first in 6 of 6 sessions

across both tickers that's 18 of 22 sessions breaking toward the level that formed first, against a baseline where that side breaks first about 1 in 4.

that 10:30AM ET close is the whole condition. the IB75 strategy is just how Dan trades it: instead of chasing the break, he waits for price to pull back a quarter of the range and enters at the IB75 with a defined stop and a defined target.

Dan's filter: the VWAP rule

this is the best part of his video: the trades he skips.

Dan skips IB75 setups when the daily VWAP sits in the path of the trade. his words: "I don't like fighting VWAP. I just don't like doing it. I lose more than I win." if VWAP is new to you, our VWAP guide covers the definition and the formula.

in the video he shows a session where everything lined up: strong move, close in the top quarter, data on his side. he passed anyway, because the daily VWAP was in the way. that skipped trade would have won. he's fine with that. his words again: "it's not my trade."

he also shows a losing setup the same filter kept him out of, and plenty of days where he's simply flat. in his words: "there are many, many days in my trading where I'm flat." if the IB doesn't close in the zone, or price never comes back to his level, he doesn't trade it.

the data tells him when the setup is valid, and his filter still gets the final word on whether he trades it.

how to check the IB75 strategy on your ticker

none of the numbers above require taking Dan's word for anything. here's the process:

1. open the IB breakout by rejection report on your ticker and set your session. the NQ version is linked above; every futures ticker has its own.

2. check the baseline: how often the side that formed first breaks first. on NQ and ES, that's roughly 1 in 4 sessions over the last 12 months in the NY session.

3. add the ending zone customization and filter to the 75-100% zone. now you're looking at only the sessions where price closed the first hour back near the level that formed first.

4. compare the two. if your ticker behaves like NQ and ES, the zone close changes which side breaks first.

5. at 10:30AM ET each day, note where the IB closed. no zone close, no IB75 setup.

if you want the IB levels drawn on your chart automatically, the initial balance indicator for TradingView plots the range and its quarter levels for you.

and keep the numbers current. break rates drift as market conditions change, so re-run the report monthly rather than trading on stale data.

the honest limits

before you build anything around the IB75 strategy, a few things the data does NOT say:

• the 18 of 22 comes from 22 sessions. that's a small sample. the zone close printed 12 times on NQ and 10 times on ES across 258 NY sessions each, about once a month per ticker. samples that small move fast, and a different 12-month window can print a different rate.
• this is a bias, not an entry system on its own. the report tells you which side the data favors after a zone close. the limit order at the IB75, the stop under the IB50, and the target at the IB high are Dan's rules, built for his risk tolerance. yours may differ.
• qualifying setups still get skipped. Dan passes on zone-close days when the daily VWAP is in the path, and some of those skipped trades win. a filter that costs you winners can still be correct over a full year of trading.
• two tickers, one session. everything above is NQ and ES in the NY session. other tickers need their own run before you assume anything transfers (our ES vs NQ comparison shows how differently even these two indexes move).
• the results take effort. Dan's edge comes from a defined process, a filter he trusts, and a lot of days spent flat. the data does the heavy lifting only after you've checked it on your ticker and built rules you can actually follow.

key takeaways: the IB75 strategy

• the IB75 strategy is a pullback entry inside the initial balance: limit order at the 75% level, stop under the IB50, target at the level that formed first.
• the levels are measured from the side of the IB that formed second, so the IB75 always sits a quarter of the range away from the side that formed first.
• the baseline argues against the trade: on NQ over the last 12 months in the NY session (258 sessions), whichever side of the IB formed first, price broke the other side first most of the time. 65.62% when the high formed first, 76.92% when the low formed first.
• the ending zone changes the bias: a 10:30AM ET close in the 75-100% zone preceded a break of the level that formed first in 18 of 22 sessions across NQ and ES over the last 12 months in the NY session.
• the setup is rare: about once a month per ticker. no zone close, no trade.
• Dan Cooke skips qualifying IB75 setups when the daily VWAP is in the path of the trade, and he's comfortable missing winners because of it.
• check the by rejection report with the ending zone customization on your own ticker before you trust either side of the range.

trading involves substantial risk of loss. historical data does not guarantee future results. always do your own research before making trading decisions.