Wide-range bar: what it is, and how to test it
A wide-range bar is a bar much bigger than the ones around it: at least twice the average range of the 20 bars before it. Traders read it as a burst of activity, a range expansion. Here is the exact rule QuantLogic uses, and how to test it on your market.
What it is
Most one-minute bars are about the same size as their neighbours. A wide-range bar breaks that rhythm.
It can close up or down; the rule only measures its size.
The exact rule QuantLogic uses
Wide-range bar, on one-minute bars.
- The bar's high-to-low range is at least twice the average range of the 20 bars before it.
When is it known? Known when the bar closes. It needs 20 earlier bars to measure the average.
Versions you can build
- Wide-range bar. A range of twice the 20-bar average or more.
What to look at around it
In QuantLogic, every time the idea happened is laid out with the data points around it, so you can see where it held and where it didn't:
Traps when you test it
- Picking a direction after the fact. A wide bar has no side of its own: test longs and shorts.
- Ignoring news. Many wide bars print on economic releases; the calendar is a data point you can filter on.
- Comparing with the whole day. The average here is only the 20 bars before.
Build it and test it yourself
Open Wide-range bar in Build with QuantLogic. See every time it happened on NQ, ES, Gold or Crude since September 2025, check the long and the short side, add your own filters and run the luck test.
Nothing is proven until it holds live. We give no trading signals and no advice, we never hold your money or your accounts, and we never trade for you.
Questions
- Does the bar's colour matter?
- No. The rule measures the range only, so test both sides.
- Why 20 bars?
- It is a fixed window set in advance, the same for every market, so the rule cannot be tuned to the result.
Related setups
Setup library
Liquidity sweeps, break of structure, VWAP, the opening range and more, drawn and explained with the exact rule.
Buying and selling tail
A wide bar with a long lower wick (buying tail) or a long upper wick (selling tail).
Relative volume
A minute trading at least twice its usual volume for that time of day.
Tight range breakout
20 bars packed into a narrow band, then the first close out of it.
Engulfing
A candle whose body swallows the body of the candle before it, in the other colour.
Educational content, not investment advice. Futures trading involves substantial risk of loss. See the risk disclosure.