# The Strat Also known as: Strat method. A Chart & Candlestick Patterns concept (Single/multi-bar (western)) in the LuxAlgo Library, with 1 indicator implementation. ## What is The Strat? The Strat is a price-action method developed by trader Rob Smith that labels every bar by how it relates to the bar before it. A 1 is an [inside bar](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/inside-bar/): it breaks neither the prior high nor the prior low. A 2 is a directional bar that breaks one side, written 2U when it takes out the prior high and 2D when it takes out the prior low. A 3 is an [outside bar](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/outside-bar/) that breaks both. A chart becomes a sequence of numbers, and setups are written as combos such as 2-1-2 or 3-1-2. The method rests on the bar scenarios, timeframe continuity and broadening formations, with no moving averages or oscillators. Full timeframe continuity (FTFC) means the current candles on every timeframe a trader monitors, commonly monthly, weekly, daily and 60-minute, point the same way: price above each period's open, so every candle is green, or below each, so every candle is red. Strat traders take setups in the direction of continuity. Broadening formations, the expanding highs and lows a 3 bar shows at the smallest scale, frame the larger structure those setups sit in. Setups, called actionable signals, trigger on a break of the prior bar's high or low. In a 2-1-2, a directional bar is followed by an inside bar and the trade triggers on the break of the inside bar; a 3-1-2 starts from an outside bar; a 2-2 reversal is a directional bar reversed at once by one in the opposite direction; the 1-2-2 RevStrat is an inside bar whose first break fails and reverses. A Pivot Machine Gun (PMG) is a run of consecutive lower highs (or higher lows) that one move breaks in succession. No independent published test of the combos exists. ## How to number bars in The Strat Each bar is compared only with the one before it; color, body and close play no part. 1. High below the prior high and low above the prior low: a 1 (inside). Most tools treat an exactly equal high or low as not broken, though conventions differ. 2. Prior high taken out but not the prior low: a 2U. Prior low taken out but not the prior high: a 2D. 3. Both the prior high and the prior low taken out: a 3 (outside). 4. Read the last two or three numbers as a combo (2-1-2, 3-1-2, 2-2, 1-2-2) and mark the trigger: the high or low of the latest bar that price must break. 5. Check continuity: is price above or below the open of the current monthly, weekly, daily and hourly candles? Take the trigger only in the direction they agree on. ## How traders use it - As a trigger system: each setup defines its entry (a break of the trigger bar's high or low), stop (the other side of that bar) and first target (the prior bar's extreme) the same way on any market and timeframe. - As a timeframe filter: full timeframe continuity gates direction, so a bullish 2-1-2 on the hourly chart is taken only while the daily, weekly and monthly candles are green; a [higher-timeframe candle overlay](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/htf-candle-overlay/) makes that check visible on one chart. - In tooling: LuxAlgo's The Strat numbers every bar (1, 2 up, 2 down, 3), boxes any custom combo typed into its search field, detects Pivot Machine Guns and draws the levels they break, and its dashboard shows bar-number counts, the most frequent combos at pivots, and the current bar's number on five timeframes from 1-minute to weekly. ## The Strat vs related bar patterns - **Inside Bar** (https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/inside-bar/): The inside bar is The Strat's 1, studied on its own as a contraction pattern. The Strat adds the grammar around it: which bar came before, which side breaks, and whether higher timeframes agree. - **Outside Bar** (https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/outside-bar/): The outside bar is the 3. Classical analysis reads its close for direction; The Strat reads it as broadening and trades the next bars' break of its range, as in 3-1-2 and 3-2-2. - **Broadening Formation** (https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/broadening-formation/): The classical megaphone is a multi-swing chart pattern. In The Strat, broadening is a structural assumption across timeframes, the backdrop against which bar-level setups are read. ## FAQ ### What do 1, 2 and 3 mean in The Strat? They classify each bar against the prior bar: 1 is an inside bar (neither side broken), 2 breaks one side (2U up, 2D down), and 3 is an outside bar that breaks both. Color, body size and the close do not change the number. ### What is full timeframe continuity? The condition in which the current candles on every timeframe you track are the same color: price above each period's open (all green) or below each (all red), commonly checked on the monthly, weekly, daily and 60-minute charts. ### What is a 2-1-2 in The Strat? A three-bar combo: a directional bar, an inside bar, then a directional bar breaking the inside bar. Breaking the same way as the first bar makes it a continuation (2U-1-2U, 2D-1-2D); breaking the other way makes it a reversal (2D-1-2U, 2U-1-2D). Entry is the break of the inside bar, the stop its other side, and the first target the extreme of the bar before it. ### Who created The Strat? Rob Smith, a trader who taught it through his own course and social media, from which it spread through trading communities. Much of today's material comes from third-party guides, so terminology beyond the core numbering varies slightly between sources. ## Implementations in the Library - The Strat (LuxAlgo): https://www.luxalgo.com/library/indicator/the-strat/ ## Related concepts - Two-bar Reversal: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/two-bar-reversal/ - Three-bar Reversal: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/three-bar-reversal/ - Pin Bar: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/pin-bar/ - Inside Bar: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/inside-bar/ - Engulfing Bar: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/engulfing-bar/ - Exhaustion Bar: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/exhaustion-bar/ - Hikkake: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/hikkake/ - Classic Bar Setups: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/classic-bar-setups/ - Wide-range Bar: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/wide-range-bar/ - Outside Bar: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/outside-bar/ --- Source: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/the-strat/ (LuxAlgo Library, the encyclopedia of trading & technical analysis). Free to use with attribution: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/license/