Darvas Box Stack Analyzer

Paste 30 or more daily bars and the analyzer builds the boxes the way Nicolas Darvas did in How I Made $2,000,000 in the Stock Market (1960): a top is a high that 3 following days fail to exceed, a bottom is the low after that top that 3 following days fail to break, and a close through either wall ends the box and starts the search for the next one. Darvas bought the break. A range trader fades the walls while they hold, so the analyzer also stacks the current box inside the 20-day box and tells you which wall has the bigger range behind it, then writes the fade with the stop past the wall and the break as the exit rule.

How it builds. Scan forward. A candidate top is any new high; it becomes the box top once 3 consecutive bars fail to trade above it. Then a candidate bottom is the lowest low since the top; it becomes the box bottom once 3 consecutive bars fail to trade below it. The box is now set. It ends on the first close above the top (up break) or below the bottom (down break), and the scan starts over from that bar. The outer box is the 20-bar high and low ending at the last bar. The read. Box set and price inside it: fade the nearer wall, stop 1 box-width times 0.2 past it, T1 the box midpoint, T2 the far wall. If the current box sits in the lower third of the outer box, the low wall has the bigger range's support behind it and the long fade is the primary; upper third, the short fade is; middle, both walls are fair. Box wall within 1% of the outer wall: the fade is against the bigger range's edge too, so the stop has to be past both. Box just broke: no fade, wait for the next box to set (3 bars for the top, 3 more for the bottom). Keyboard: Enter builds, 1 to 3 load the examples.

Educational tool only, not financial advice. Darvas made his money on the break, not the fade. The box tells you where the walls are; it doesn't tell you which one holds.

Built by Jason Parker, founder of Trading Ranges.

Built by Jason Parker, founder of Trading Ranges.