The rules
- Channel: a least-squares line through the closes of the last 40, 60, 90 or 120 bars (the 3 latest bars left out, so a fresh break shows), shifted up to the highest high and down to the lowest low around it.
- It counts when the closes fit the line well (R² of 0.6 or more), each line is touched by at least two swing highs (or lows) within 20% of the channel’s width, the channel is 2–8 ATRs wide, and it rises (ascending) or falls (descending) by at least one channel width over its length.
- Channel position: where the close sits between the lines, 0% on the lower line and 100% on the upper. Near the lower line means 25% or less; near the upper line, 75% or more.
- Breakout or breakdown: a close beyond a line by a quarter of an ATR in the last 3 bars, with price still outside.
About this setup
- What it is
- A channel is a trend that moves between two parallel lines: an ascending channel rises with higher highs and higher lows, a descending channel falls with lower highs and lower lows.
- How traders use it
- Traders buy near the lower line of an ascending channel and take profit near the upper one, sell rallies to the upper line of a descending channel, and watch a break out of a descending channel (or below an ascending one) as a possible change of trend.
- Caveats
- Channels are clear only in hindsight and the lines are fitted to past data, so a new swing can redraw them. Breaks often come back inside the channel.
Calculated in your browser from daily candles; crypto’s daily candle is still forming until 00:00 UTC, so today’s values can change. Not investment advice.
Frequently asked questions
Which markets can it scan?
Four, picked with the Market buttons above the table. Crypto (the default) scans the 250 busiest USDT pairs on Binance. Crypto perps scans the 200 busiest USDT perpetual futures on OKX. Both are free public data and need no key. US stocks scans about 600 US stocks and ETFs with your own free Alpaca key, and CME futures scans about 25 front-month CME Group contracts (stock indexes, Treasuries, oil, gas, metals, grains, livestock, currencies and CME bitcoin) with your own free Massive key.
Why do stocks and futures need a key?
Stock and futures prices are licensed data, so a website can’t hand them out for free. Alpaca (for stocks) and Massive (for futures) give anyone a free data key. Your key is saved only in your browser and sent only to that provider. See how to get a free Alpaca key and how to get a free Massive key for futures.
Is the data real-time?
Crypto and crypto perps are live from Binance and OKX, on daily candles that start at 00:00 UTC (today’s candle is still forming). Alpaca’s free stock data is 15 minutes behind the market, and Massive’s free futures plan is 8 hours delayed. Turn on auto-refresh next to the results to update the table in place every 30 seconds, minute or 5 minutes.