The rules
- Box top: a bar whose high is the highest of the 60 bars up to it and isn’t exceeded by the next 3 bars.
- Box bottom: after the top, a bar whose low is the lowest since the top and isn’t undercut by the next 3 bars, with no high above the top meanwhile (a higher high starts a new box).
- Breakout: a close above the top in the last 3 bars, with price still above it. Breakdown: a close below the bottom in the last 3 bars.
- Boxes taller than 25% of the price or 8 × the 14-day ATR (whichever is larger) are left out. Box top at a 52-week high: the top is the highest high of the last 252 bars (about a year).
- Quality scores how cleanly the box fits these rules: a box top at a 52-week high, a longer box, a box no taller than 4 × ATR and an upside breakout score higher.
About this setup
- What it is
- Nicolas Darvas, a dancer who made a fortune in the 1950s stock market, bought stocks making new highs once they had paused in a box and broke out of its top. Each new high builds a new box above the last.
- How traders use it
- Traders buy breakouts above the box top, often on rising volume, put the stop just under the box bottom, and trail it up as new boxes form. Boxes under a 52-week high are the classic set-up.
- Caveats
- Breakouts often fail, especially in weak markets. The box rules here are one mechanical reading of Darvas’s method; boxes drawn by hand can differ.
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.