Breakout strategies

Breakout strategies treat a move past a recent high, low or channel as the start of something bigger, and enter in the direction of the break. When a market is genuinely starting to trend that gets you in early; in a range, most breakouts fail and reverse, so false breaks are the main cost. Volatility and confirmation filters reduce but never remove that — expect a lot of small losing fakeouts in exchange for occasionally catching a big move.

Each one below is a mechanism to test, not a recommendation. Open it to see exactly how it works in plain English, then backtest it yourself — costs on, no look-ahead, measured against buy & hold — or open it in the builder to tweak.The sparkline on each card is the strategy's performance relative to buy & hold — it only rises when the strategy is beating a passive hold.

• 52-Week High Breakout

  Nasdaq-100 ETF (QQQ)

  Enters when price prints a new 1-year high, protected by a hard stop and a trailing stop

  ▼ lagged buy & hold
• 55-Day High Breakout

  Palantir

  Enters on a new 55-day high, trails the peak, and times out if the move stalls

  ▼ lagged buy & hold
• Bollinger Upper-Band Breakout

  Tesla

  Rides a push through the upper band, steps out on the return to the middle line, with a 12% stop.

  ▼ lagged buy & hold
• Donchian 20/10 Channel Breakout

  S&P 500 ETF (SPY)

  The short turtle on the index: 20-day-high entry, 10-day-low exit, with an 8% stop.

  ▼ lagged buy & hold
• Donchian 20/10 Turtle Breakout

  Nvidia

  Buys a fresh 20-day high, exits on a 10-day low, with a volatility stop underneath

  ▼ lagged buy & hold
• Keltner Channel Breakout

  Nvidia

  Buys a close pushing above the upper Keltner band; exits back at the middle EMA.

  ▼ lagged buy & hold
• Turtle System 2 (55/20)

  Bitcoin

  The slower turtle: 55-day-high entry, 20-day-low exit, sized to a fixed risk per trade