Turtle-style breakout
An educational adaptation of channel breakout and volatility sizing principles.
Keep the chart simple
What needs to be in place first
- Entry and exit lookbacks are frozen
- Risk units account for correlated pairs
- Pyramiding, if tested, has a hard cap
See turtle-style breakout from both sides
Choose a direction and follow the chart from setup to entry, stop and planned exit. The method stays the same; only the directional comparisons reverse.
Entry is above the trigger, invalidation is below the setup and a profit exit is above the entry.
- EEntryLONG ENTRY / ONE UNIT
- SStop / risk limitLONG STOP / 2N
- XExitEXIT / NEXT DAILY OPEN
The entry and exit channels exclude the current bar. A completed close above Donchian(55) leads to one next-open unit, exactly one 2N stop and no add-on entries. A later close below the opposite Donchian(20) schedules the exit.
There are no add-on units, 0.5N pyramid levels, previous-winner skip or discretionary partial exits in this canonical long example.Check the market first
A completed daily close exceeds the prior 55-day high for long or falls below the prior 55-day low for short.
Wait for the entry rule
Enter one unit at the next daily open after the qualifying channel close; there is no previous-winner skip rule.
Place the stop before entry
Stop exactly 2N from actual fill. One unit risks 0.50% equity and is rounded down to 0.01 lot.
Know how the trade ends
Exit at next daily open after a completed close through the opposite 20-day channel; the 2N stop remains active.
WickAtlas adaptation: 55/20 daily channel breakout
This version of Turtle-style breakout chooses one answer for every decision so you can repeat it. Treat the settings as a starting point to test, not as proven or recommended parameters.
EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/JPY, AUD/USD, USD/CAD and USD/CHF daily bars closing 21:00 UTC; both directions.
This is a transparent WickAtlas educational adaptation, not a claim to reproduce every historical Turtle rule.
One unit per pair and no pyramiding in the canonical version.
Plot 55-day entry Donchian and 20-day opposite exit Donchian, both excluding the current bar.
Calculate N as Wilder ATR(20) from completed daily bars.
Maintain a currency exposure sheet: maximum two open units and no currency represented in more than one position.
Give every tool one job
Direction, timing, volatility and risk are different questions. This stack assigns them rather than asking one indicator to do everything.
Defines the longer entry extreme before the signal bar.
Defines unit size, stop distance and excessive-gap cancellation.
Supplies the shorter opposite-side exit without discretionary profit taking.
Caps clustered breakouts that are economically the same currency position.
- A completed daily close exceeds the prior 55-day high for long or falls below the prior 55-day low for short.
- No existing position shares either base or quote currency and the two-unit portfolio cap remains available.
- N is available from at least 60 warm-up bars and the next scheduled central-bank event for either currency is more than 24 hours away.
Enter one unit at the next daily open after the qualifying channel close; there is no previous-winner skip rule.
Stop exactly 2N from actual fill. One unit risks 0.50% equity and is rounded down to 0.01 lot.
Exit at next daily open after a completed close through the opposite 20-day channel; the 2N stop remains active.
Cancel when next-open gap exceeds 1N, currency/portfolio cap fails, N is unavailable, or a central-bank-event exclusion applies.
Use a constant 1.5-pip spread, 0.3-pip adverse slippage on entry and exit, zero commission and a frozen 0.5-pip deduction per daily rollover.
Move through the chart one decision at a time
- Day −2: freeze channels
EUR/USD prior 55-day high is 1.1000, 20-day lower exit is 1.0750 and N is 80 pips.
- Day −1: qualify
The daily candle closes at 1.1010 above the prior channel; the signal bar itself is not added to its entry boundary.
- Day −1: exposure check
No open position contains EUR or USD, one of two total units is available and the event calendar passes.
- Day 0: enter
Next open is 1.1020 with a sub-1N gap; enter one unit after costs and place stop 160 pips below actual fill.
- Following days: hold
Do not add units, take partial profits or skip the trade because the previous breakout won; those are outside this adaptation.
- Exit day
After a close below the then-known 20-day lower channel, exit at next open and include financing and slippage in net R.
A rejected example
Reject a second breakout whose quote currency is already present in the portfolio. Separate chart signals can still be one concentrated currency exposure.
Common variations
- Separate variant only: 20-day entry and 10-day exit.
- Separate variant only: capped add-on units at 0.5N intervals.
- Separate variant only: a documented previous-winner skip rule; never infer it retrospectively.
Rebuild this method on the platform you use
The written rules work independently of the charting app. Match the same feed, timeframe, indicator settings and completed-candle timing before comparing results.
MT4
Manual rulesThe rules can be followed manually, but one or more requested chart tools need custom code on this platform.
MT5
Manual rulesThe rules can be followed manually, but one or more requested chart tools need custom code on this platform.
TradingView
Manual rulesThe written rules can be followed manually. WickAtlas does not currently provide an automated strategy or trading bot.
TradingView indicatorsWickAtlas TradingView guideTest on a demo account first. Platform access does not validate a strategy or make a result likely. Compare the platforms.
Keep every test organised.
The CSV gives you one place to record the setup, costs, execution, outcome and whether you followed your rules.
Download test-plan CSV ↓