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# Three rules, one curve
- URL: https://readtheopen.com/notes-three-rules-one-curve/
- Published: 2026-10-30T14:17:19.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-02T15:49:06.000Z
- Description: The Open, The Close and The Map trade different parts of the day. How the three fit together, with their backtest and its limits.
- Author: Read the Open
- Tags: Notes

Read the Open runs three rules on Nasdaq futures. Each one trades a different part of the day and holds for a different length of time, and that's the point: when one has a flat stretch, the others usually don't.

- **The Open** trades the morning's move once it breaks out of its normal range, and is flat by the close.
- **The Close** buys a sharp dip inside an uptrend near the close and gets out on the bounce, usually within a few days.
- **The Map** reads market structure across timeframes and takes clean pullbacks on the one-minute chart. It is the newest and least proven, so it trades small.

Day by day, their results have almost nothing to do with each other: the correlation between The Open and The Close is about zero, and so is The Map's with the other two.

## The backtest, together

**What the evidence says**

| The Open and The Close, 1 NQ each | Net, after costs             |
| --------------------------------- | ---------------------------- |
| 2020                              | About +$45,000               |
| 2021                              | About +$62,000               |
| 2022                              | About +$27,000               |
| 2023                              | About +$35,000               |
| 2024                              | About +$110,000              |
| 2025                              | About +$103,000              |
| 2026, to October                  | About +$131,000              |
| Every year since 2020             | Positive, 7 of 7             |
| Back to 2000                      | 18 of 26 full years positive |

Per NQ contract at $20 a point, with $2.50 commission and 2 ticks of slippage on each side, on continuous Nasdaq-100 futures intraday bars. Rounded. 2026 runs to late October.

| All three, sized for a $50,000 account | November 2023 to October 2026 |
| -------------------------------------- | ----------------------------- |
| Months positive                        | 83%                           |
| Return a year                          | About 42%                     |
| Worst drawdown                         | 7% of the account             |

Micro contracts: 1 MNQ for The Open and The Close, and about $375 of risk a trade for The Map, with $0.62 commission and 2 ticks of slippage on each side. The Map's figures come from the period it was built on; on 2021 to 2023 data it was about break-even on its own.

[Hypothetical results1](#hypothetical-results), not actual trading. The full statement is at the end of this page.

## Why three and not one

Every rule has flat stretches. A single rule asks you to sit through them with nothing else working. Three rules that don't move together turn those stretches into slower months instead of losing years. Size is still what keeps you in the game: The Close has no stop, and The Map is sized small for a reason.

Start with the ideas: [The Open](https://readtheopen.com/notes-the-open-idea-and-record/), [The Close](https://readtheopen.com/notes-index-dip-idea-and-record/) and [the words The Map uses](https://readtheopen.com/notes-structure-in-five-words/).

*Education only. Nothing here is advice about your account.*

**1 Hypothetical results.** These results are based on simulated or hypothetical performance results that have certain inherent limitations. Unlike the results shown in an actual performance record, these results do not represent actual trading. Also, because these trades have not actually been executed, these results may have under-or over-compensated for the impact, if any, of certain market factors, such as lack of liquidity. Simulated or hypothetical trading programs in general are also subject to the fact that they are designed with the benefit of hindsight. No representation is being made that any account will or is likely to achieve profits or losses similar to these being shown.

Why our numbers carry this label, and what other kinds of track record leave out: [How to read a trading track record](https://readtheopen.com/notes-how-to-read-a-track-record/).