TCS Failed Auction
Failed auction status Initial balance (IB): weekly = first session of the week, monthly = first week of the month. A failed auction: price breaks one side of the IB, fails, and then takes out the other side. Levels for study, not trade calls.
Loading…
Failed auctions on the price chart Daily candles with EMA 20 / 50 / 100 / 200. Arrows: confirmed failed auctions (green bullish, red bearish). Lines: current IB, the latest failed auction level and its 1 and 2 ATR objectives. Drag the chart or the date axis to move, scroll to zoom.
Every failed auction Objectives followed for a fixed window after confirmation
What our backtest found Daily candles, every stored session
Built from daily candles (index spot where available, else near-month futures). With daily data the order of the high and low inside one session is not known: when both IB edges are crossed in the same session, a green candle is read as low-first (bullish) and a red one as high-first (bearish). ATR: average true range of the previous 14 completed weeks or months. For education only, not a recommendation to buy or sell.
TCS (TCS) Failed Auction: What It Shows
The idea
Market Profile treats the market as an auction. When price pushes beyond a range and finds no follow-through, the auction has failed: buyers (or sellers) were not there. The extreme of that failed push often becomes an important level.
Initial balance (IB)
The opening range of the period. Weekly IB is the high and low of the first session of the week; monthly IB is the high and low of the first week of the month.
Range extension
Price trades beyond the IB high or low later in the period.
Failed auction, step by step
Price breaks one side of the IB (say the low), cannot continue, comes back, and then breaks the other side (the high) in the same week or month. The low of that failed break is the bullish failed auction level. The mirror image (break above the IB, then below it) gives a bearish failed auction at the high.
ATR objectives
ATR is the average range of the last 14 weeks or months. The 1 ATR objective is the failed auction level plus one ATR (minus for bearish); the 2 ATR objective adds a second ATR. They are reference distances, not promises.
Nullified and reverse objectives
If price trades back beyond the failed auction level within two sessions of confirmation, the setup is nullified. Followers of this method then watch the reverse objectives: the level minus one and two ATR (plus for bearish).
How and When Traders Use It
When
Only after confirmation, when the opposite side of the IB is taken out. Before that, a break of the IB is just a range extension and may keep going.
Bias
After a bullish monthly failed auction, traders give the month a bullish bias while price holds above the level: they look for dips rather than shorts. The opposite holds after a bearish one.
Risk
The failed auction level is the line in the sand. A close beyond it invalidates the idea; a quick return within two sessions suggests the opposite move.
Targets
The 1 ATR and 2 ATR objectives are where traders expect the move to run out of steam or where they book part of their gains.
Weekly vs monthly
Weekly failed auctions suit swings of a few sessions; monthly ones frame the trend for weeks. A weekly signal in the same direction as the monthly one is read as stronger.
Practical example
In October 2026 NIFTY's monthly IB was about 22,217 to 22,776. Price broke below the IB to about 22,180 but could not stay there, came back inside, and on 15 October crossed above the IB high. That confirmed a bullish monthly failed auction near 22,180. With a monthly ATR of about 1,330 the objectives were about 23,510 (1 ATR) and 24,840 (2 ATR); a move back below 22,180 would cancel the setup.
What Our Backtest Measures
Did the objective come first?
From the close of the confirmation session we check whether price reached the 1 ATR (and 2 ATR) objective before trading back beyond the failed auction level, within 15 sessions for weekly and 60 sessions for monthly setups.
Compared with a random day
The same two distances (to the objective and to the level) are tested from every session in the history. If failed auctions do no better than random days, the setup has no edge on this data, and the page says so.
Nullified setups
How often a failed auction was nullified within two sessions, and how often the reverse 1 ATR objective was reached after that.
Daily data limits
Classic Market Profile uses intraday data. This page uses NSE daily candles, so the order of the high and low inside one session is not known; when both IB edges break in the same session we read a green candle as low first and a red one as high first.
TCS Failed Auction: Frequently Asked Questions
What is a failed auction in TCS?
Price breaks one side of the weekly or monthly initial balance, fails to continue, and then breaks the other side. The extreme of the failed break is the failed auction level.
What is the monthly initial balance?
On this page, the high and low of the first week of the month. The weekly initial balance is the high and low of the first session of the week.
How are the 1 ATR and 2 ATR objectives calculated?
Failed auction level plus one or two average true ranges of the last 14 months (monthly) or weeks (weekly); minus for a bearish failed auction.
What does nullified mean?
Price went back beyond the failed auction level within two sessions of confirmation. The setup is cancelled and the reverse objectives come into view.
Does a failed auction predict the market?
Check the backtest on this page: it compares failed auctions with the same moves from random days on TCS's own data. Treat the levels as context, not as forecasts.
Is this a buy or sell signal?
No. This page is for education only and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security.
Failed Auction for other indices & stocks
Data: NSE F&O bhavcopy (end of day). This page explains how market participants commonly read this data. It is for education only and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security.