Trend / Momentum
Bollinger Band Squeeze Breakout
A squeeze is a stretch where the bands pull in tight around price because volatility has dropped, and the trade is entering when the bands snap back open and price breaks a clear direction.
Watch the compression, then the release
Bandwidth is the distance between the upper and lower band, divided by the middle band. The gauge below compresses as bandwidth drops into the lowest 20% of its own last 100 bars, a real squeeze, and fires open when it snaps back out. Adjust the period and band width and the whole series recalculates from the same underlying prices.
| # | Bars in squeeze | Result | Net move |
|---|---|---|---|
| No squeeze has released yet. | |||
How it works
- Bandwidth is a single number. It is the upper band minus the lower band, divided by the middle band, recalculated every bar from the real period and width settings above.
- A squeeze is bandwidth in the bottom 20% of its own recent range. The tool compares the current bar's bandwidth to the last 100 bars of its own bandwidth history, not to a fixed number, since low volatility means something different for every instrument and timeframe.
- The gauge compresses and expands with that same number. There is no separate animation logic, the coil's height on screen is a direct read of the percentile rank shown in the stats above it.
- A release only counts once price confirms it. When bandwidth pops back above the 55th percentile, the tool watches the next 10 bars. A net move of 1.2% or more in one direction logs as a real breakout. Anything smaller logs as a false start.
Where this breaks
Squeezes that fire as false starts
A squeeze tells you volatility is about to expand. It does not tell you which direction, and it does not guarantee the expansion holds. Let this run for a while and check the false-start count against the real-breakout count in the log above, they land close to each other more often than not. A lot of releases are a single sharp bar or two, enough to pop bandwidth out of the bottom percentile, followed by price settling right back into the same range it came from. Trading every squeeze release the same way means taking that false-start rate on every single signal, with no way to tell in advance which release is the real one and which is the fakeout.