ICT NWOG and NDOG — New Week and New Day Opening Gaps Explained
The New Week Opening Gap (NWOG) and New Day Opening Gap (NDOG) are gap references used by some ICT traders. Price may revisit them, but gaps can remain open and should not be treated as guaranteed targets.
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The New Week Opening Gap (NWOG) and New Day Opening Gap (NDOG) are algorithmic price levels created at the opening of each new trading week and each new trading day respectively. They represent the gap between where the market closed and where it opens — and according to ICT methodology, some traders treat these gaps as possible reference levels, but price does not have to revisit or fill them. Once you start tracking NWOGs and NDOGs, you will begin to see how consistently price returns to fill these levels.
What Is the New Week Opening Gap (NWOG)?
The New Week Opening Gap is the price range between Sunday's opening price (when forex markets reopen) and Friday's closing price (when major markets closed for the weekend). This gap represents a zone of unfair pricing — the market closed at one level, the world continued processing information over the weekend, and the market reopened at a different level. The algorithm seeks to fill this zone before or during the week.
To mark the NWOG: on Sunday evening when forex opens, note the opening price. Compare it to Friday's close. If Sunday opens above Friday's close, you have a bullish NWOG — a gap upward that price will seek to fill from above (meaning it will drop back to Friday's close level at some point during the week). If Sunday opens below Friday's close, you have a bearish NWOG — price will at some point rally back up to fill the gap.
What Is the New Day Opening Gap (NDOG)?
The New Day Opening Gap is the same concept on a daily basis. It represents the gap between the previous day's close and the current day's open. In forex, because the market trades 24 hours, the NDOG is typically identified at the New York midnight open (12:00 AM New York time) or at the New York 8:30 AM pre-market open, depending on the ICT model being used.
The NDOG is a daily internal target. Before conducting intraday analysis, mark the NDOG on your chart. If the market opened below the NDOG midpoint, the gap fill represents a potential daily upside target. If the market opened above the NDOG midpoint, the gap fill represents a potential daily downside target.
How Price Fills Opening Gaps
NWOG and NDOG are gap references some ICT traders monitor. Price may revisit an opening gap later or leave it unfilled, so treat the gap as a possible reference rather than a recurring target unless a backtest supports that use.
- Mark the NWOG at the start of every week — note the range between Friday close and Sunday open.
- Mark the NDOG at the start of every day — note the midnight open gap if applicable.
- When your daily bias aligns with the direction of the gap fill (e.g., bullish bias + bearish NWOG means price should retrace up to fill the gap), use the NWOG/NDOG midpoint (CE) as a target.
- Do not use NWOG/NDOG as a standalone entry — use them as confluence targets when other PD Arrays align at or near the gap fill level.
- Weekly gaps are commonly filled on Monday or Tuesday — watch for Turtle Soup setups that sweep a level and then reverse into the gap fill direction.
NWOG and NDOG in the DOL Framework
In ICT's Draw on Liquidity framework, NWOGs and NDOGs are classified as Internal Range Liquidity (IRL) targets. They sit inside the current dealing range and represent price imbalances that some traders monitor as potential revisit areas. Like other FVG references, they can remain unfilled and should be tested rather than assumed to be future targets. seek before reaching the External Range Liquidity (the swing highs and lows beyond the range).
A practical weekly workflow: every Sunday evening, mark the NWOG on your major pairs. Every day, mark the NDOG. Then as you conduct your session analysis, note whether the ICT setup you are considering has the NWOG or NDOG as a natural target. When your entry, your PD Array, and an opening gap fill all align on the same trade, the probability and conviction behind that setup significantly increases.
Worked hypothetical example: record an opening-gap revisit
A learner marks a week's opening gap between 420 and 424 at the moment it forms. The plan defines a revisit as a trade back into the gap before Friday's close and a full fill as reaching the far boundary. If price trades to 422 but never reaches 424 before the horizon ends, the outcome is logged as partial, not a full fill.
Failure case and what to test
A gap may remain open across multiple sessions, and different feeds or session definitions can show different gap boundaries. Test fixed observation horizons and distinguish no revisit, partial fill and full fill. A reference gap does not guarantee a future target.
Test checklist
- Define the market close/open times and price-feed convention.
- Freeze gap boundaries when they are first observable.
- Set a fixed horizon and definitions for touch, partial fill and full fill.
- Count unfilled gaps and include any execution costs in trade tests.
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