Bollinger breakout up event
Marks candles that close above the upper Bollinger band, meaning price is stretched unusually far above its recent average.
It builds the upper Bollinger band from the last window closes: their average plus mult times their sample standard deviation, scaled by (1 + band). It marks each candle whose close is above that level. Despite the word event in the name, this is a state test, not a one-bar cross: every candle that stays above the band is marked, so one breakout shows as a short run of markers.
How to read it
- Markers sit on candles that closed above the upper band. This indicator does not draw the band itself.
- At default settings about 95% of candles carry no marker, and a breakout run usually lasts about two candles.
- A long string of markers means price is holding above the band in a strong move, not a fresh breakout.
- A marker shows a stretched move, not a direction. Price can keep running or snap back.
What it outputs
- Breakout up
- Marks each candle whose close is above the upper Bollinger band: average of the last window closes plus mult standard deviations, scaled by (1 + band).
When it fires
Fires on each candle whose close is above the upper band, the average of the last window closes plus mult standard deviations, scaled by (1 + band). The first candle of a run is the breakout itself. Later candles in the run show price is still holding above the band.
Settings
- window
- Number of recent closes the band is built from. At 20 it spans the last 20 minutes. Raising it gives a slower band that trails the trend. Lowering it gives a faster band that reacts to recent moves. A window of 1 has no spread and never fires.
- mult
- Standard deviations the upper band sits above the average. Raising it pushes the band out, so only sharp stretches clear it and markers get rarer. At 0 the band is the average and many candles mark. Negative values mark ordinary closes.
- band
- Percentage offset on the band level: the close must clear the band by this fraction of its level. At 0.001 that is about 0.1%, roughly 0.77 dollars on SPY near 765. Raising it keeps only the strongest breaks. Negative values mark earlier.
Pitfalls
- On SPY one-minute bars for September 2026 at defaults it produced 534 breakout runs, about 25 a day, so raw markers are too frequent to act on alone.
- Price riding a strong trend keeps closing above the band, so markers can run for many candles. A marker is a stretch, not a reversal or an entry.
- The band includes the candle being tested. A large candle widens the band for the next window bars and can stop later breakouts from firing.