After scepticism from market participants at the start of 2019, and the high volatility between Christmas and New Year's Eve, bulls finally caught some backwind and went for a re-test of the region around 11,000 points.

(Click on image to enlarge)

Source: Admiral Markets MT5 with MT5SE Add-on DAX30 CFD daily chart (between 29 September 2017 to 11 January 2019). Accessed: 11 January 2019 at 10:00 PM GMT

Please note: Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results, or future performance.

The fact that the DAX30 CFD bulls are gaining more and more control could already be seen one day earlier, on Thursday. After Apple cut its revenue outlook for the first time in almost two decades, the DAX30 CFD initially failed to break above 10,660/680 points. However, it also didn't break below 10,400 points.

On Friday, bulls finally found enough confidence to push the DAX30 CFD higher once the news hit the wire that China would cut its reserve requirement ratio by 1%. Later, strong NFPs and comments from FED chairman Jay Powell triggered further strength, resulting in a close of more than 3% higher for the day.

As you can imagine, it was possible to be positioned in this stint on the upside on January 4.

But before we go into further details, let's recall the three steps of the DAX30 CFD open range breakout strategy:

1. Define open range between 8:00 am and 9:05 am (CET)
2. Identify the advantage: based on the 5-min-EMA (50)
   • DAX30 CFD trades above → Long
   • DAX30 CFD trades below → Short
3. Trade the break of the open range in direction of the identified advantage
   • Stop: Above/below the high/low of the range (= 1R)
   • Take profit: 2R away from the entry point of the trade

In the following paragraphs we will go through these three steps and see how the setup would have performed on January 4, 2019.

1. The high and low between 08:00 am and 09:05 am (CET) can be found between 10,507 and 10,550 points, so the open range is 43 points wide.

(Click on image to enlarge)

Source: Admiral Markets MT5 with MT5SE Add-on DAX30 CFD 5 minute chart (between 04 January 2019 to 04 January 2019). Accessed: 10 January 2019 at 1:30 PM CET. Please note: Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results, or future performance.

2. As you can see in the chart above, the DAX30 CFD broke out on the downside first, even though no short trade was triggered (pink mark). The reason is when the 5-minute candle before the breakout occurred, the DAX30 CFD traded above the EMA (50), meaning that a buy stop order was placed.

With the break lower and 5-minute close below the EMA (50), the order was switched to a sell stop, which also wasn't triggered. With the 5-minute close above the EMA (50) at 09:55 (CET) another buy stop was placed and then triggered several minutes later.

(Click on image to enlarge)

Source: Admiral Markets MT5 with MT5SE Add-on DAX30 CFD 5 minute chart (between 04 January 2019 to 04 January 2019). Accessed: 10 January 2019 at 1:30 PM CET. Please note: Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results, or future performance.

3. As shown on the chart above, the DAX30 CFD broke out of its open range on the upside and started to move in the direction of the breakout on the upside.

The stop was placed at the low of the range at 10,507 resulting in a risk of 43 points.

Since the setup works with a take profit 2R away from the entry point of the trade, a sell limit was placed at 10,636 points, 86 points away from the entry point.

The target was hit within the next few hours, resulting in profit of 86 points and a profit factor of 96 points: 43 points = 2 : 1.

In 2014, the value of the DAX30 CFD increased by 2.65%, in 2015, it increased by 9.56%, in 2016 it increased by 6.87%, in 2017 it increased by 12.51%, in 2018 it fell by 18.26%, meaning that after five years, it was up by 10.5%.