Sessions backtests → w/c 31 August 2026

NY AM, week commencing Monday 31 August 2026

Five first sweeps from five, the first clean week on that axis in the record, from a week in which four of the five forecasts were repeats. Monday and Tuesday drew the same table from a 105-point London and a 379-point one and resolved identically; last week's new table came back and went the other way; the 25% both-sides branch landed on Thursday with a 430-point run; and Friday's payrolls morning drew a table the record had not seen. Twenty-five sessions in, the bins are doing most of the talking.

At a glance

Three scores, because the indicator makes three separable claims.

5 / 5
first sweep called correctly, at a mean stated 72%
3 / 5
sessions that landed the four-way branch rated highest
7 / 10
levels taken, against a mean stated 62%
4 / 5
sessions whose forecast the record had already seen
SessionLondonPrior sweep High onlyLow onlyBothInside First sweep calledActualOutcome
Mon 31 Aug105 ptInside 10%52%38%0% ▼ low 85%▼ low 07:40 ✓low only ✓
Tue 1 Sep ISM379 ptSwept low 10%52%38%0% ▼ low 85%▼ low 07:55 ✓low only ✓
Wed 2 Sep194 ptSwept low 37%35%18%10% ▲ high 53%▲ high 08:10 ✓high only ✓
Thu 3 Sep188 ptSwept high 24%45%25%6% ▼ low 62%▼ low 07:45 ✓both sides
Fri 4 Sep NFP125 ptSwept high 53%20%24%3% ▲ high 74%▲ high 08:25 ✓both sides

The four share columns are the indicator's own figures, read off the status table at the session open, and they sum to 100 on every row. Gold marks the branch the tables rated highest. London printed below its own average range on Monday and Friday and above it on the other three days; Tuesday's 379 points is the widest prior session in the record, more than a hundred points beyond the previous widest. Two red folder USD releases fell inside the session this week: ISM Manufacturing at 10:00 ET on Tuesday, two hours after the low had gone, and Non-farm payrolls at 08:30 ET on Friday, an hour in, on the bar that took the low five minutes after the high. Both are marked against the day. Monday 31 August was a normal trading day. Times are the 5-minute bar in which the level was crossed.

None of this week was in the sample. The Atlas Sessions tables were measured on NQ history ending 27 July 2026. Every session below happened afterwards, and the percentages are fixed lookups, so the figures shown are exactly what a live user saw at 07:30.
Every chart here is a 5-minute one, chosen for legibility and nothing else. The levels and the percentages are identical on any timeframe, because both are defined by clock time and price rather than by bars. Only the precision of the timestamp follows the bar size: a take stamped 08:30 here happened somewhere in the five minutes from 08:30.
The number on a level is an exclusive share, not the chance that level gets taken. London Low | 52% means 52% of comparable sessions took the low and left the high alone. The chance the low is taken at all is low only plus both sides, which on Monday was 52 + 38 = 90%. The full explanation is on the first week's page.
Session by session

The five NY AM sessions

Left, the session opening at 07:30. Right, the same chart at 11:30 with the outcome latched.

Monday 31 August 2026, NY AM opening at 07:30 on NQ: a 105 point London range held inside the prior session, price below London EQ and four points above the London low which is rated 52 percent, the high 100 points above at 10 percent, first sweep 15 to 85 favouring the low, the table of Monday 3 and Thursday 20 August.
07:30 open
London high 29538.75 at 10%, low 29434.00 at 52%. Price opened four points above the low. Monday 3 and Thursday 20 August's table.
Monday 31 August 2026, NY AM at the close: the London low latched taken at 07:40, price falling to 29354 by 10:30 and then recovering to sit on the London low into the close, the high never approached. Low only.
11:30 close
Low taken 07:40, high never approached. Low only, the 52% favourite.
Monday 31 August

Opened four points above the London low with 85% on it, and it went in the third bar

First sweep ✓ · low only, the 52% favourite ✓

Price opened four points above the London low with 85% on it going first, and it went in the third bar of the session at 07:40. The table is 10 / 52 / 38 / 0 from 840 sessions, the record's largest sample, drawn on Monday 3 August, when both sides went, and Thursday 20 August, when the low went and nothing else.

This one did what the 20th did. The fall ran eighty points to 29354 by 10:30, the recovery came back to the level itself, and the high, a hundred points above at a 48% marginal, was never in range. Three from three: first sweep, the 52% favourite, and both marginals, the 90% low taken and the 48% high not. A call with the level four points away is closer to arithmetic than to a forecast, as the page said of the 20th.

  • London range105 pt, below average
  • Prior sweepInside
  • Open vs London EQBelow EQ
  • Four-way10 / 52 / 38 / 0
  • First sweep▲ 15% · ▼ 85%
  • P(high taken)48% → not taken
  • P(low taken)90% → taken 07:40
  • Samplen 840, High
Tuesday 1 September 2026, NY AM opening at 07:30 on NQ: a 379 point London range, the widest of the record, that swept its own low with price below London EQ and 35 points above the London low rated 52 percent, the high 344 points above at 10 percent, first sweep 15 to 85 favouring the low, Monday's table.
07:30 open
London high 29556.50 at 10%, low 29177.50 at 52%. A 379-point London after an overnight fall, the widest prior session of the five weeks. Monday's table.
Tuesday 1 September 2026, NY AM at the close: the London low latched taken at 07:55, price falling to 29040 by 09:45 and recovering to 29268 by 11:00 to close just above the London low, the high 344 points above never approached. Low only.
11:30 close
Low taken 07:55, high never approached. Low only, the 52% favourite. ISM at 10:00 landed in the recovery.
Tuesday 1 September

The widest London of the record, Monday's table, and Monday's outcome

First sweep ✓ · low only, the 52% favourite ✓🔴 ISM Manufacturing PMI · 10:00 ET

London fell 379 points overnight, the widest prior session of the record by more than a hundred points, and the lookup did not change: 10 / 52 / 38 / 0, Monday's table, because the inputs it keys on were the same. Swept low, below EQ, price 35 points above the low with 85% on it going first.

The low went at 07:55, the fall ran to 29040 at 09:45, 137 points beneath the level, and the recovery got back above the low by 11:00. The ISM print at 10:00 landed in the middle of that recovery and did not change its direction. The high, 344 points above the open, was never a question.

Three from three again, and the bin's fourth draw: both sides once, low only three times. On Monday and Tuesday the same forecast met a 105-point London and a 379-point one and resolved the same way, which is the argument the repeat-bins section makes below.

  • London range379 pt, above average
  • Prior sweepSwept low
  • Open vs London EQBelow EQ
  • Four-way10 / 52 / 38 / 0
  • First sweep▲ 15% · ▼ 85%
  • P(high taken)48% → not taken
  • P(low taken)90% → taken 07:55
  • Samplen 840, High
Wednesday 2 September 2026, NY AM opening at 07:30 on NQ: a 194 point London range that swept its own low, price below London EQ and rallying into the open 70 points under the London high rated 37 percent, the low at 35 percent, inside session 10 percent, first sweep 53 to 47 favouring the high, the table of Tuesday 25 and Thursday 27 August.
07:30 open
London high 29121.00 at 37%, low 28927.25 at 35%. The table Tuesday 25 and Thursday 27 August drew, both of which resolved low only.
Wednesday 2 September 2026, NY AM at the close: price rallying from the open through the London high latched taken at 08:10, pulling back to the level at 09:00 and again at 10:00, then climbing to 29211 by 11:00, the low never approached. High only.
11:30 close
High taken 08:10, low never approached. High only, the 37% favourite, after two low-only draws of the same table.
Wednesday 2 September

Last week's new table on its third draw, and this time the 37% favourite landed

First sweep ✓ · high only, the 37% favourite ✓

37 / 35 / 18 / 10 from 215 sessions for the third time in six sessions. Both earlier draws, Tuesday 25 and Thursday 27 August, took the low, missed the high by 4 and 27 points, and scored against the 37% favourite.

This one rallied from the open, took the high at 08:10, came back to test the level twice, at 09:00 and again at 10:00, and then climbed to 29211 by 11:00. The session low was the opening area at 29017, ninety points above the London low, which was never approached.

Three from three: the high at 53% went first, high only at 37% landed, the 55% high marginal was taken and the 53% low was not. The bin is now one high only and two low only from three draws, which is roughly what 37 / 35 says it should be, and the both-sides branch at 18% has not appeared.

  • London range194 pt, above average
  • Prior sweepSwept low
  • Open vs London EQBelow EQ
  • Four-way37 / 35 / 18 / 10
  • First sweep▲ 53% · ▼ 47%
  • P(high taken)55% → taken 08:10
  • P(low taken)53% → not taken
  • Samplen 215, Medium
Thursday 3 September 2026, NY AM opening at 07:30 on NQ: a 188 point London range that swept its own high, price below London EQ and 60 points above the London low rated 45 percent, the high at 24 percent 125 points above, first sweep 38 to 62 favouring the low, the table of Tuesday 18 and Wednesday 19 August.
07:30 open
London high 29293.00 at 24%, low 29105.50 at 45%. Tuesday 18 and Wednesday 19 August's table, which resolved low only and then both sides.
Thursday 3 September 2026, NY AM at the close: the London low latched taken at 07:45, a reversal from 29102 that took the London high latched at 09:35, a pullback to the high at 10:30 and then a rally to 29540 at the close, 250 points above the London high. Both levels taken.
11:30 close
Low taken 07:45, high taken 09:35, then a run to 29540 into the close. Both sides, the 25% branch.
Thursday 3 September

The 25% both-sides branch landed, and then price ran 430 points off the session low

First sweep ✓ · both sides, the 25% branch

The third draw of 24 / 45 / 25 / 6, the table Tuesday 18 August took the low on and Wednesday 19 August took both sides on. Price opened sixty points above the low with 62% on it going first.

The low went at 07:45 with a session low of 29102, four points beneath the level, and that was the bottom. Price reversed, took the high at 09:35, pulled back to it at 10:30, and then ran to 29540 by the close, 250 points above the London high and 430 above the session low.

First sweep correct at 62%. The branch was both sides at 25%, against a 45% low-only favourite, and both marginals resolved taken, the 70% low and the 49% high. The bin is now low only once and both sides twice from three draws, and both of the both-sides mornings were reversals through the entire London range.

  • London range188 pt, above average
  • Prior sweepSwept high
  • Open vs London EQBelow EQ
  • Four-way24 / 45 / 25 / 6
  • First sweep▲ 38% · ▼ 62%
  • P(high taken)49% → taken 09:35
  • P(low taken)70% → taken 07:45
  • Samplen 406, High
Friday 4 September 2026, NY AM opening at 07:30 on NQ: a 125 point London range that swept its own high, price above London EQ and 30 points under the London high rated 53 percent, the low at 20 percent, both sides 24 percent, first sweep 74 to 26 favouring the high, a table the record had not drawn before on a sample of 479.
07:30 open
London high 29698.50 at 53%, low 29573.75 at 20%. A table not seen before in the record: 53 / 20 / 24 / 3 from 479 sessions.
Friday 4 September 2026, NY AM at the close: the London high latched taken at 08:25, the next bar at 08:30 falling 200 points through the London low latched taken at 08:30 on the payrolls print, a rally back to the London high at 10:00 that stopped under it, and a fall to 29483 into the close. Both levels taken.
11:30 close
High taken 08:25, low taken 08:30 on the payrolls bar, five minutes apart. Both sides, the 24% branch.
Friday 4 September

A first-appearance table, the high at 08:25, and the low on the payrolls bar five minutes later

First sweep ✓ · both sides, the 24% branch🔴 Non-farm payrolls · 08:30 ET

The only forecast this fortnight the record had not seen: 53 / 20 / 24 / 3 from 479 sessions, with 74% on the high going first. Price opened thirty points under the high on a payrolls morning, with the release an hour into the session.

The high went at 08:25, one bar before the print. The 08:30 bar then fell two hundred points, through the London low, which latched taken on that bar, to 29500. Price rallied all the way back to the London high by 10:00, held under it, and fell again to a session low of 29483 before the close.

First sweep correct at 74%, and both marginals taken, the 77% high and the 44% low. The branch was both sides at 24% against a 53% high-only favourite. The high was taken before the release and the low on it; the calendar was on the page, and that is the honest reading of the morning. First draw of this table, so there is nothing to compare it with yet.

  • London range125 pt, below average
  • Prior sweepSwept high
  • Open vs London EQAbove EQ
  • Four-way53 / 20 / 24 / 3
  • First sweep▲ 74% · ▼ 26%
  • P(high taken)77% → taken 08:25
  • P(low taken)44% → taken 08:30
  • Samplen 479, High
The most useful thing in the record

The same forecast, more than once

Across the twenty-five sessions published so far, seven context bins have each come up more than once, and twenty-three of the twenty-five sessions sit in one of them. Same context bin, same lookup, same numbers to the percentage point, on days weeks apart with different London ranges and different price levels. This week four sessions were repeats, Monday and Tuesday of each other as well as of two August mornings, and Friday's table was a first appearance.

ForecastSessionsFirst sweepOutcome
38 / 11 / 50 / 1 · sweep 80 / 20 · n 524Fri 7 Aug▲ high 80%high only
Wed 12 Aug▲ high 80%high only
Fri 14 Aug▲ high 80%both sides
Wed 26 Aug▲ high 80%both sides
Fri 28 Aug▲ high 80%both sides
10 / 52 / 38 / 0 · sweep 15 / 85 · n 840Mon 3 Aug▼ low 85%both sides
Thu 20 Aug▼ low 85%low only
Mon 31 Aug▼ low 85%low only
Tue 1 Sep▼ low 85%low only
34 / 25 / 41 / 0 · sweep 58 / 42 · n 528Wed 5 Aug▲ high 58%both sides
Thu 6 Aug▲ high 58%both sides
Tue 11 Aug▲ high 58%low only
Mon 24 Aug▲ high 58%both sides
24 / 45 / 25 / 6 · sweep 38 / 62 · n 406Tue 18 Aug▼ low 62%low only
Wed 19 Aug▼ low 62%both sides
Thu 3 Sep▼ low 62%both sides
37 / 35 / 18 / 10 · sweep 53 / 47 · n 215Tue 25 Aug▲ high 53%low only
Thu 27 Aug▲ high 53%low only
Wed 2 Sep▲ high 53%high only
28 / 15 / 56 / 1 · sweep 58 / 42 · n 173Thu 13 Aug▲ high 58%both sides
Mon 17 Aug▲ high 58%low only
52 / 8 / 38 / 2 · sweep 88 / 12 · n 766Tue 4 Aug▲ high 88%high only
Fri 21 Aug▲ high 88%both sides

Two things follow, and they matter more than this week's score.

The forecast is a lookup, not a fit. Nothing about Tuesday the 1st was used to produce Tuesday the 1st's numbers. They are the numbers Monday got, and Monday 3 and Thursday 20 August got, because all four sessions landed in the same measured bin. What puts a session in a bin is not how wide London was, which is why a 105-point morning and a 379-point one drew the same table. It is not the prior sweep either: this same cell has now been drawn after a swept high, a swept low and an inside session. A table that returns the same answer for the same context bin and then watches the answer resolve both ways is behaving exactly as a table should.

Identical forecasts resolving differently is the system working, not failing. All seven bins that have repeated have now produced more than one outcome; the last holdout, 37 / 35 / 18 / 10, went high only on Wednesday after two low-only draws. The largest bin, 10 / 52 / 38 / 0 from 840 sessions, has gone low only three times and both sides once from four draws, against a stated 52 and 38. That is what those two numbers look like at this sample size. Neither settles anything; both are the point.

What this week actually shows

Five things, from the best week on the first-sweep axis and an ordinary one on the other two.

  1. Five from five on the first sweep, and most of it was arithmetic. The mean stated share on the called side was 72%, and on three of the five mornings the called level was within 35 points of the open: four points on Monday, 35 on Tuesday, 30 on Friday. The two calls that had to do some work, Wednesday at 53% with the high 70 points away and Thursday at 62% with the low 60 points away, both landed too. Across the five weeks the first-sweep call stands at seventeen from twenty-five.
  2. The same table met a 105-point London and a 379-point one and resolved the same way. Monday and Tuesday both drew 10 / 52 / 38 / 0 from 840 sessions, because the bin does not key on the width. Both took the low inside the first half hour and never approached the high. Tuesday's London was the widest of the record by more than a hundred points, and the forecast did not know or care.
  3. Last week's new table went the other way on its third draw. Tuesday 25 and Thursday 27 August drew 37 / 35 / 18 / 10 and both took the low against the 37% high-only favourite. Wednesday drew it again and took the high. One high only and two low only from a table that says 37 and 35 is about what it should look like, and every one of the seven repeated bins has now split at least once.
  4. The per-side view scored seven of ten, and the both-sides favourite did not appear. Seven of ten levels resolved as their marginals implied, against a mean stated 62%, the lowest stated mean of the five weeks; thirty-seven of fifty across the record against roughly 68%, a realised 74%. Both sides was not the highest-rated branch on any morning this week, so its tally stays at seven from twelve. Thursday and Friday landed it at 25% and 24%, which is the branch score's cost and the per-side view's gain.
  5. Twenty-five sessions still settle nothing, and the indicator's own row is behind for a fifth week. Fifty level events cannot confirm frequencies measured over hundreds. The indicator's realised versus expected row read 50 to 52% against 56% expected across the week, on 262 to 278 setups loaded, which is behind for the fifth week running. The record has a shape, not a verdict, and that row is the number to keep watching.
How to check this yourself. Load Atlas Sessions on your own NQ chart, set it to any timeframe you like, and scroll back to the week of 31 August 2026. The levels and percentages will be the ones printed above, because they are fixed table lookups rather than anything computed from what happened next. Compare Monday's table with Tuesday's while you are there, and then with Monday 3 August and Thursday 20 August.