Donchian breakout down event
A close under the recent lowest low, a breakdown that never fires at default settings.
Each bar, the indicator takes the lowest low of the last window bars, counting the bar being tested, and marks the bar when its close is below that low, scaled by band. Normal bars have a low at or below their close, so with the default band of 0 the test can never pass and the indicator marks nothing (0 markers in 20,160 SPY one-minute bars, September 2026). A negative band is the only setting that makes it fire, and then it marks closes near the low rather than real breaks below it.
How to read it
- Markers sit on candles that closed below the recent lowest low. At default settings the chart shows none, which is correct, not a missing feature.
- No window length makes a marker while band is 0 or above, since the channel low already contains the current bar's low.
- A negative band marks closes just above the recent low: price pressing its floor, not a confirmed breakdown.
What it outputs
- Close below channel low
- Drawn on bars whose close is below the lowest low of the last window bars, scaled by band. At default settings it draws nothing.
When it fires
It fires only with a negative band: the close is below the window's lowest low, this bar included, raised by the band's size, so it sits just above its recent floor. At band 0 it never fires. It marks price pressing its floor, not a confirmed breakdown.
Settings
- window
- Sets how many bars the channel low spans, counting the current bar. Raising it lowers the channel low, so with a negative band it draws fewer markers. At band 0 it draws none at any length.
- band
- The close must fall below the channel low times (1 minus band). At 0 or above nothing fires. Negative values lift that line above the low: -0.001 marks closes within 0.1% above the channel low, and -0.05 marks nearly every bar.
Pitfalls
- Looks broken: the channel low includes the current bar's low, which sits at or below the close, so a breakdown at band 0 cannot happen. trb_breakout_down_event lags its channel one bar; this indicator does not.
- The up sibling, donchian_breakout_up_event, uses the same unlagged channel, so it has the same flaw for band 0 and above.
- Negative band values were not measured on the sample, so how often they mark bars is unknown here. Their markers are near-low readings, not breakdowns, so test them on the chart before use.