The first hour draws the skeleton.

The Initial Balance is the range of the session's first period — classically the first hour. It is where the day's first real negotiation happens: overnight positions meet fresh day-session money, and together they sketch the first draft of the day's range. Its high and low become two of the most watched lines of the entire session.

Wide or narrow: the first personality trait

A wide IB means the first hour already explored a lot of ground and found responsive traders at both ends — the raw material of a range day, the D shape from Season 2. A narrow IB means the first hour agreed too easily: a fragile draft that initiative can overwhelm — the setup from which trend days and P or b shapes are often born. Neither is a verdict; both set expectations.

Extensions: the day rewrites its draft

When price breaks beyond the IB, that is an IB extension — the day telling you the first draft was too small. How it breaks matters more than that it breaks: an extension with acceptance (time and volume building outside) is initiative winning and the day type migrating; a poke that comes right back inside is rejection — and the IB edge just proved itself as a wall. You are reading the same mother concept again, at the day's most important edge.

You now hold four families of levels: VWAP, prior value, overnight, IB. The magic happens where they pile up — confluence is next.