Defining the range where the bulk of the day session's price action could take place and planning accordingly.
There are different ways to do it but a typical approach is to use the opening range and add a certain percentage of the Daily ATR[14] above and below it.
Defining the opening range can be variable depending on the instrument. For the ES, you might try 30 minutes and add/substract 20% of the Daily ATR[20] above/below the opening range. That would define the expectation where the bulk of the day session's price action could take place.
Only trending moves that are supported by large traders should be able to significantly trade above or below this range.
What other techniques do you find effective to form your opinion about the expected range early in the session ?
Something along these lines (Primer on the ACD method):