What qualifies
- Inside bar: today’s high is below yesterday’s high and today’s low is above yesterday’s low. Double inside bar: two in a row.
- NR7 / NR4: today’s high-low range is the narrowest of the last 7 / 4 days.
- Tight range: the last 10 days span less than 2.5× the 14-day average true range.
- Flat base: at least 20 days in a range of under 15% (25% for crypto), ending within 10% of the 52-week high.
- Breakout level: the base high for flat bases, the mother bar’s high for inside bars, otherwise the 10-day high. Range vs 7-day compares today’s range with the 7 days before it.
Why traders watch narrow ranges
Quiet periods tend to be followed by bigger moves. Toby Crabel’s NR7 and the inside bar are simple ways to spot a quiet day; many traders place orders just above the high and below the low and let the market pick a direction. Flat bases near highs are the slower, multi-week version that growth investors watch for breakouts.
Patterns are found mechanically on daily candles from the data provider. Not investment advice.
Frequently asked questions
Does today’s candle count before the close?
Yes: the latest candle is used as it is now. Crypto’s daily candle runs from 00:00 to 24:00 UTC, so during the day its range is still growing, and an inside bar or NR7 can disappear before the close. Check again after the daily close to confirm.
What does the quality score mean?
It’s a 0–100 score of how cleanly the pattern fits the rules above (for example, how tight the flag is, how round the cup is, or how closely the two lows match). It isn’t a probability and says nothing about what price does next. Use it to sort the list, then look at the chart: click a symbol to open it on FreeCharting.
Are these patterns reliable?
Chart patterns are a way to describe price action, not a prediction. Many fail, and they work differently in different markets. The detection is mechanical: a pattern can qualify on the numbers and still look wrong to your eye, and a pattern you’d draw by hand may miss one rule. Nothing here is investment advice.
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.