The Asian range has more thin threads on this board than almost any other single idea, from the basic "use it as a map" posts to pair-specific checklists. Read together, they disagree in useful places, so here's the combined version.
Define the box properly first
Two replies in the "use it as your map" thread raise the same problem: a fixed 00:00 to 08:00 UTC box changes meaning when the clocks change. During British summer time London opens at 07:00 UTC, so that box quietly includes London's first hour. The USDJPY levels thread marks roughly 00:00 to 07:00 London instead. Whatever window you use, define it in one time zone and check it twice a year.
The USDJPY thread adds a quality filter: if the range came from a single news spike or a BOJ comment, it isn't really a range, and its edges don't carry the same weight.
Width decides the playbook
The width filter thread treats Asia's high-low as the gate for everything at London:
- Too narrow: expect fake breaks and boredom clicks, so cut trade count hard.
- Middle: normal playbooks.
- Already wide: London often digests the move, so favour pullbacks and reclaims over fresh breakout chasing, or reduce risk.
Breakout or fade
The breakout-or-fade thread says it depends on conditions: trending higher timeframe, a catalyst and clean closes outside the range favour breakouts, while quiet calendars and a range already near its average size favour fades. A reply argues the catalyst deserves its own test, recording whether anything was released between 07:00 and 09:30 and splitting results on that alone.
The fade threads are the most cautious. The EURGBP fade thread only fades an Asia extreme after London shows rejection rather than acceptance, keeps the target inside the range, and skips tiny ranges where there's nothing to revert. The overlap fade thread insists on spread and Tier-1 filters. A reply there gently points out that by the overlap the Asia range has usually been broken already in London's first hour, so what's really being faded is a London level.
The sweep and reclaim
The GBPUSD checklist thread describes the favourite sequence: Asia builds an obvious high, ideally equal highs, London runs it quickly, then reclaims with some urgency. Every line on the checklist has to pass, including no UK high-impact print in the next few minutes. A reply stresses that last point for GBPUSD in particular, because a lot of UK data drops at 07:00 London, right into the sweep window.
When to skip
The skip thread lists the conditions that kill the idea: Asia trended rather than ranged, London opens through the extreme with pace, a UK or EU print sits inside your hold window, or EUR and GBP are both being driven by a dollar move so the cross is just residual. And one honest one: skip when you watched Asia for hours and feel owed a trade.
If there's a common thread, it's that the Asian range is a map, not a signal. Its width and how London first treats its edges tell you which playbook to use.
Do you measure Asian range width before London, and what counts as too narrow on your main pair?
Threads this pulls from
- The Asian Range, Use It as Your Map
- Asian Range, Breakout or Fade?
- Asia range width filter before I allow any London scalp
- Asia range fade during London-NY overlap: rules and filters
- EURGBP and the Asia range fade: does it still work after costs?
- When I skip the Asia range fade at London open
- Asia high sweep then London reclaim: my GBPUSD checklist
- USDJPY: Asia range levels that still matter in London
