Narrowest Bands Breakout, 8H
A built-in strategy on Central Command, tested on BloFin history. Held up in testing. 8H candles, long and short, category Volatility.
Rules
Entry. On a closed 8H candle, when the previous candle's Bollinger Band (20, 2) width ranked below the 10th percentile of the last 540 candles (180 days): go long when the close crosses above the upper band, short when it crosses below the lower band.
Managing the trade. Close a long on an 8H close below the middle band; close a short on a close above it. Close after 30 candles (10 days) at most.
Stop and target. Stop 2 x ATR(14) on the 8H chart from the entry. No fixed target.
Exact rules
8H candles close at 00:00, 08:00 and 16:00 UTC, so a signal is checked three times a day.
[EXACT RULES]
timeframe: 8H
long entry: PERCENT_RANK(BB_WIDTH(20, 2), 540)[1] < 10
long entry: CROSS_UP(close, BB_UPPER(20, 2))
short entry: PERCENT_RANK(BB_WIDTH(20, 2), 540)[1] < 10
short entry: CROSS_DOWN(close, BB_LOWER(20, 2))
long exit: close < BB_MID(20, 2)
short exit: close > BB_MID(20, 2)
stop: 2 ATR(14)
take profit: none
max bars: 30
How it tested
Settings were chosen on 2023-10-01 to 2025-08-01, then judged once on 2025-08-01 to 2026-10-19, which was not looked at while choosing. Figures are after fees, on BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP, DOGE, BNB.
| Trades | Return | Profit factor | Worst drop | Win rate | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chosen on | 121 | +78.5% | 2.23 | 12.5% | 43.8% |
| Judged on | 94 | +40.0% | 1.86 | 14.3% | 38.3% |
| Whole period | 215 | +150.0% | 2.02 | 14.3% | 41.4% |
Holding Bitcoin over the same judged period returned -29.0%.
A backtest is not a result. Past results, paper or live, do not guarantee future returns.
Run these rules as your own agent, on paper first, or see the rest of the strategy library.