Donchian Breakout with ATR Trailing Stop (Trend Following)A simple, transparent trend-following strategy: a classic Donchian
(turtle) channel breakout with a single ATR-based trailing stop.
It was deliberately built to be robust across markets rather than
curve-fit to one — the same code and settings held up on both an
equity index (DAX/GER40, 1h) and Bitcoin (BTCUSD, 4h), and across
trailing multipliers of 2.5–3.5.
HOW IT WORKS
- Entry: goes long when price closes above the highest high of the
last N bars (default 20) while above the 200 EMA trend filter.
Short side is optional and off by default.
- Exit: one ATR-based trailing stop (distance = ATR × multiplier,
default 2.5, fixed at entry). It serves as both the initial
protective stop and the trailing exit — cutting losses and letting
winners run, fully automatically. No separate exit signal needed.
- Risk: size is derived from a fixed % risk per trade against the
stop distance (compounding), with optional risk and leverage caps.
- Optional weekend-flat close for instruments with gap risk.
HOW TO USE
- Best on genuinely trending markets. Try it on your own instrument
and timeframe.
- Tune the risk % to your own drawdown tolerance, and the ATR
multiplier to taste (2.5–3.5 behaved similarly — a good sign the
edge isn't fitted to one value).
- Built-in alerts: the entry alert gives you the trailing-stop
distance to set on your broker; the trailing stop handles the exit.
WHAT TO EXPECT — READ THIS
- It's a breakout system, so win rate is LOW: ~40–45% is normal.
The edge is that winners are bigger than losers, not that you're
right often. Judge it by profit factor and drawdown, not win rate.
- Expect long flat/drawdown periods in choppy, range-bound markets.
It performs when markets trend.
- COSTS DECIDE EVERYTHING. Set your own broker's spread/commission
in the properties before trusting any result. Something that looks
great at zero cost can be break-even or worse once real spreads —
and, for leveraged CFDs, overnight financing — are included.
Results vary a lot by broker and instrument.
NOTES
- No repainting: entries use the prior bar's channel; the trailing
stop only ratchets in the trade's favor.
- Not financial advice. Past backtest results do not guarantee
future performance. Always test on your own market, timeframe and
broker costs, and only risk what you can afford to lose. Strategy
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Donchian Channels+Standard Donchian Channels, this includes a Trend EMA which can be configured and the channels will use to give buy and sell signals. The channels are also colored in such a way to indicate a trend reversals. My favorite part that sets this apart from others is, if using the bClose option (which I recommend you do) the trend will not reverse until there is a close above/below the previous channel high/low. i.e. a reversal into an uptrend requires the current bar to close above the previous upper channel rather than just a new high.
The coloring of the current trend allows for a quick read of current market conditions and I use this on any timeframe across all forms of charts (forex stock, futures , crypto, etc). When taking one of the signals I use the opposite channel as the stop loss (when buying use bottom, and selling use top channel)
Update 1:
- Added my name to the code
- Updated the picture to show off the indicator better
- Raised the brightness of the fill color a bit, looks nicer I think
As a warning: I have obviously hand picked this picture to really show off this indicator's power to work in a trending market. Donchian Channels are a trending indicator and work best in trending markets with decent pull backs. If there are multiple signals going in each direction, it is a choppy market and you should stay out until it starts trending again. I generally use a 1:1.5 risk to reward ratio but sometimes will stretch it to 1:2 if it is a nice trade and I feel the market is in my favor as you can see from the trades placed in the picture (and I use that method for any commodity / chart and timeframe). I use the close of the white candle and then (since they are trades going short) I use the upper Donchian Channel as my stop loss.
I personally like to have the lines and labels turned off and enable all other options. Labels are just there to really stand out so you don't miss the white candle indication for a trade. OH! Also, I've had comments from friends that the white candles are hard to see, I turn off my candle borders in settings; makes it super easy to see them then. I turn lines off as the fill does the job well enough and it seems cleaner in my eyes.
If you'd like to see this picture on your chart, it is Micro E-Mini S&P 500 Futures from July 10, 2022 @ 18:00 on the 1-min chart.
just now
Update 2:
- Added day trading time highlights
- Added ranging market indicator (This I'm still working on so use at your own discretion, it's intended purpose is to tell when the Donchian Channels are not going to give great signals and to use a ranging indicator instead)
- Added multi-timeframe trend screener (handy if you want to quickly see the trend direction (based on the Trend EMA you set) of several time frames without having to change charts). It will draw in the bottom right of the chart. Indicator
Donchian Channel Strategy IdeaThis strategy idea is a variation of the "Donchian Channel" trading strategy. It is built with a highest-high band, a lowest-low band, and a baseline which is average the highest-high and the lowest-low bands. This strategy is very useful in trending instruments on 1W and 1D timeframes. This is the implementation used in the QuantCT app.
You can set the operation mode to be Long/Short or long-only.
You also can set a fixed stop-loss or ignore it so that the strategy acts solely based on entry and exit signals.
Trade Idea
When the close price breaks up the previous highest-high, it is a long signal, the market is considered rising (bullish), and the plotted indicator becomes green. Long positions are held until the close price crosses under the baseline.
When the close price breaks down the previous lowest-low, it is a short signal, the market is considered falling (bearish), and the plotted indicator becomes red. Short positions are held until the close price crosses above the baseline.
Otherwise, if we have no position in the market, the market is considered ranging, and the plotted indicator becomes orange.
Entry/Exit rules
Enter LONG if the close price breaks up the previous highest-high (i.e. when the plotted indicator becomes green).
Exit LONG if the close price crosses under the baseline (i.e. when the plotted indicator becomes orange).
Enter SHORT if the close price breaks down the previous lowest-low (i.e. when the plotted indicator becomes red).
Exit SHORT if the close price crosses above the baseline (i.e. when the plotted indicator becomes orange).
CAUTION
It's just a bare trading idea - a profitable one. However, you can enhance this idea and turn it into a full trading strategy with enhanced risk/money management and optimizing it, and you ABSOLUTELY should do this!
DON'T insist on using Long/Short mode on all instruments! This strategy performs much better in Long-Only mode on many (NOT All) trending instruments (Like BTC, ETH, etc.).
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TrendLine ChannelsAbstract
This script provides a set of Trendline Channels which can be tighter than Donchian Channels.
This script computes the most suitable active upper and lower trendlines and updates them as soon as possible.
We can use it for breakout signals earlier than Donchian Channels.
Introduction
Channels are tools which can mark area of values of ranging markets.
Once the price leaves the original region, range traders may start admitting they are wrong and trigger trend.
Donchian Channels (misheard as Dungeon Channels) use the highest and the lowest price to define area of values.
When the price breakouts, it just like it got released from a dungeon.
However, waiting for the price making even higher or lower may be too late and risk reward ratio may be lower.
Trendlines can make the channels tighter and we can find earlier breakout signals.
Computing Trendline Channels
(1) Find the most active trendlines
In this script, a valid trendline connects two high values or two low values.
A high value means the highest value in a trading day.
A low value means the lowest value in a trading day.
In this script, every trendline does not crossover any bar but can exactly touch them.
The most flat trendline is taken. (one for upper and one for lower)
(2) Continue to use or Change a trendline
If there is a tighter trendline available, this script changes to use it.
If the previous active trendline is broken, this script re-computes the trendline available.
When this case happens, this script display with an another color.
Otherwise, this script continues using the previous trendline.
(3) Middle line
The middle line indicates the middle value between the upper and the lower.
Parameters
Length : how many days are used for computation. The default value is 16 just because 16=4*4, using binary characteristic.
x_go_on : If the previous trendline is not breakout and there are no tighter trendlines available, we continue use it.
Color Options
(1) Upper trendline (no update or tighter)
(2) Upper trendline (changed due to breakout)
(3) Middle line
(4) Lower trendline (no update or tighter)
(5) Lower trendline (changed due to breakout)
Conclusion
Trendline Channels can be tighter than Donchian Channels and evaluate earlier breakout signals.
Comparing to known auto trendline scripts, Trendline Channels is continuous.
Once a trendline is broken, Trendline Channels can instantly point out the next available one.
If you think the price movement is boring or you cannot have good risk reward ratio, you can go to an another timeframe.
Reference
How to trade with Donchian Channels
How to trade with Trendlines Indicator
VPCI MA cross [LM]Hello guys,
I would like to introduce you a script that combines two indicators: VPCI( volume price confirmation indicator) and donchian MAs
VPCI:
Fundamentally, the VPCI reveals the proportional imbalances between price trends and volume-adjusted price
trends. An uptrend with increasing volume is a market characterized by greed supported by the fuel needed to
grow. An uptrend without volume is complacent and reveals greed deprived of the fuel needed to sustain itself.
Investors without the influx of other investors ( volume ) will eventually lose interest and the uptrend should
eventually breakdown.
A falling price trend reveals a market driven by fear. A falling price trend without volume reveals apathy, fear
without increasing energy. Unlike greed, fear is self-sustaining, and may endure for long time periods without
increasing fuel or energy. Adding energy to fear can be likened to adding fuel to a fire and is generally bearish
until the VPCI reverses. In such cases, weak-minded investor's, overcome by fear, are becoming irrationally
fearful until the selling climax reaches a state of maximum homogeneity. At this point, ownership held by weak
investor’s has been purged, producing a type of heat death capitulation. These occurrences may be visualized by
the VPCI falling below the lower standard deviation of a Bollinger Band of the VPCI, and then rising above the
lower band, and forming a 'V' bottom.
I have used MA's on top of VPCI and looking for crosses. Percatage that is shown in label is calculation of difference between previous cross and current close price. So you know if you would be flipping what % you would gain or loose, all is rounded with precission of two
DONCHIAN
I took donchain calculation from ichimoku to calculate conversion line and base line(both are giving me information about whether it's trending or not and distance from the mean)
There are various sections in setting:
VPCI - setting of MA lengths(for smaller timeframes I recommend using bigger MA length)
DONCHAIN - setting length for conversion and base line
Any suggestions are welcome
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Donchian Channel Strategy [for free bot]
I present to you a script for testing the Donchian channel breakout strategy for the Binance_exchange.
This strategy is trending, and is especially effective for trading cryptocurrency futures.
This strategy is very flexible, and you can configure virtually all possible parameters, moreover, separately for longs and separately for shorts.
In the script, you can configure the parameters of the channel for entry and exit, the exit method, enable or disable purchases / sales, specify take profit and stop loss, and more.
On the example of optimization, only 20% of the deposit is used. This is done for diversification, since there are 37 contracts on binance_futures (at the time of writing the script description). That is, by optimizing the parameters for different currencies, you can very well reduce risks.
Представляю Вам скрипт для тестирования стратегии пробоя канала Дончиана для биржи Бинанс.
Данная стратегия относится к трендовым, и особенно эффективная на торговли криптовалютных фьючерсов.
Данная стратегия очень гибкая, и можно настроить фактически все возможные параметры, при чем, отдельно для покупок и отдельно для продаж.
В скрипте можно настроить параметры канала на вход и на выход, метод выхода, разрешить или запретить покупки/проаджи, указать тейк-профит и стоп-лосс и другое.
На примере оптимизации используется всего 20% от депозита. Это сделано для диверсификации, так как на фьючерсах бинансе присутсвует 37 контрактов (на момент написания описания скрипта). Т.е., оптимизировав параметры под разные валюты, можно очень хорошо снизить риски. Strategy
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