False Breakout

False Breakout is the definitive clean build of the false breakout study: it watches confirmed swing levels for breakout attempts and classifies each as genuine or failed. A break beyond a level opens a failure window; a close returning to the original side inside that window confirms the trap, while price holding beyond retires the level as a genuine breakout. Confirmed failures are boxed from the broken level to the false-break extreme and labeled there.

How to Trade the False Breakout?

• Bull Trap: a break above resistance that closed back inside — breakout buyers are trapped, and the classic read is a fade back across the range.
• Bear Trap: the mirrored failure below support, trapping breakdown sellers.
• Zone's outer edge: the false-break extreme is the commonly used stop when fading, since a return beyond it revives the breakout case.
• Same-bar confirmation: with the Wick trigger, a poke beyond the level that finishes back inside confirms immediately.

Each side fires its own alert, plus a combined any-trap stream.

False Breakout Settings

• Swing Length (default 20): bars left and right confirming the swings that become watched levels; larger values keep only significant boundaries.
• Break Trigger (default Close): Close starts the failure watch only once a bar closes beyond the level — the stricter school; Wick starts it on any intrabar poke.
• Failure Window (Bars) (default 5): maximum bars beyond the level for a re-entry to still count as a failure.
• Require Heavy Re-entry Volume (default off) with Volume Average Length (default 20): only confirms traps whose re-entry bar trades above its trailing average volume.
• Show Swing Levels, Show Trap Zones and Show Trap Labels (all default on) control the visuals.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is a false breakout the same as a Wyckoff spring?

A Spring is the accumulation-specific case: a failed probe under range lows inside a Wyckoff narrative. This build applies the same failure logic symmetrically to every confirmed swing level on both sides, no schematic required.

Which break trigger should I use?

Close is the stricter choice — one close beyond, then one back inside — and filters the most noise. Wick catches single-bar rejections Close never sees, at the cost of more marginal signals.

What happens when the breakout is real?

If price holds beyond the level past the failure window, the level is retired and its line ends at the break — no trap is drawn and no alert fires. The tool only speaks when a break fails.