ZynIQ Breakout Lite + Helper

Breakout Lite + Helper is the Breakout Essentials engine (a LONG or SHORT when a candle closes decisively beyond the recent range, with a tracked Risk Helper ladder) plus the controls to choose which breaks count: a session filter, premium/discount awareness, finer break-distance control, and optional volume and volatility filters. Its entry helper then watches the broken level and marks a Retest when price comes back to it and holds.

How it works

1. The range. The highest high and lowest low of the previous 20 bars (or the highest and lowest candle body with “Bodies”).
2. The break. A LONG needs a closed candle whose close is above the range high plus the buffer (0.1 x ATR(14) by default, or a number of ticks). A SHORT is the mirror. With “Skip breaks closing further than” set above 0, a close more than that many ATRs beyond the range is ignored.
3. Candle size. The breakout candle (high to low) must be at least 0.5 x ATR(14).
4. Gaps. On intraday charts, the first bar after a time gap of more than 1.5 bars cannot signal.
5. Filters (all off by default, so out of the box Lite behaves like Essentials with a retest helper):
   • Session: only inside the chosen session (default 09:30-16:00 New York, Monday to Friday). Intraday charts only.
   • Premium/discount: the longer range is the highest high and lowest low of the previous 100 bars. The broken level’s position in it is a percentage (0 = bottom, 100 = top). Filter mode: a LONG needs it at or below 50%, a SHORT at or above 50% (adjustable). Tag mode only adds “Discount 32%” or “Premium 71%” to the label.
   • Volume: the breakout candle’s volume must be at least 1.2 x the average of the previous 20 bars.
   • Volatility: ATR(14) must be at least 0.8 x its own 100-bar average.
6. Spacing and direction. At least 5 bars between signals. The opposite direction is always allowed; a second signal in the same direction needs a fresh range (the whole range formed after the last signal and the broken level held for at least 3 bars), unless you choose “Flip only”.
7. Entry helper. At each signal a zone is set at the broken level plus and minus 0.25 x ATR. Once price has closed beyond the zone (away from the level), a later bar that dips back into the zone and closes back on the breakout side of the level is a Retest (only the first one counts). A close through the far side of the zone ends the watch as Failed; after 20 bars without either it ends as No retest.
8. The Risk Helper starts a ladder at the signal bar’s close.

Everything is decided when the candle closes; history and live behave the same.

The Risk Helper

• Levels. ATR mode (default): stop 1.0 x ATR(14), targets 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 x ATR(14) from the entry, measured at the signal bar. Percent mode: a percentage of the entry. Points mode: a fixed number of price points. Every level is rounded to the tick; a target is never closer than the one before.
• Tracking. From the bar after the signal, each closed bar’s high and low are checked. Stop touched = Stopped. Otherwise each target reached is marked hit. If one bar touches both the stop and a target, the stop counts first.
• Ending. Stop or last target hit (Done), a new signal (Closed), or 100 bars (Expired). Optional: move the stop to entry from the bar after TP1, when more than one target is set (“Stopped at entry” if it is then hit).
• History. The current ladder and the last 5 finished ones stay on the chart.
• No win rates or performance figures, ever.

What you see on the chart

• LONG (teal, under the candle) and SHORT (fuchsia, over the candle) labels. With premium/discount on, a second line shows “Discount 32%” or “Premium 71%”. Hover for the range and close.
• Range box (dashed, faint fill) around each broken range; the last 20 kept.
• Live range lines (off by default; faint grey steps) at the current range high and low.
• Retest zone: a faint box with a dotted outline around the broken level, from the signal bar until the retest, failure or end of the watch (last 20 kept). A small cyan Retest label marks the bar that retested and held.
• Session shading (only when the session filter is on): a very faint cyan background inside the session.
• Equilibrium line (off by default): the halfway line of the longer range, in faint cyan.
• Risk Helper ladder: entry (dotted cyan), stop (dashed amber), TP1 to TP3 (dashed, signal colour), each with a price tag at the right end of its line. A level that is hit turns solid and thicker, and its own tag changes to “TP1 hit 31231.00”, “SL hit …” or “Stop at entry hit …” (no separate hit labels on the candles). With “Move stop to entry after TP1”, a new amber stop line starts at the entry and the SL tag reads “SL (entry)”.
• HUD (dark panel, top right by default):
  • Title and Risk Helper mode.
  • Direction and Status of the trade (Waiting, Open, TP1 hit, TP2 hit, Done, Stopped, Stopped at entry, Expired, Closed).
  • Entry and SL, TP1 and TP2, TP3 and the Retest state (“-” before the first signal, Watching, Retested, Failed, No retest, or Off when the helper is switched off).
  • Long above / Short below: the closes that would trigger the next signal (filters still apply).
  • Session (Off, In, Out, or “Off (D+)” on daily charts) and Location (where the close sits in the longer range).
  • Notes: which filters are on, plus warnings such as “No volume data: volume filter passes”.
• Watermark: “ZynIQ Breakout Lite”, faint, bottom right.

Settings

Alerts

All alerts fire once, when the candle closes. Create them with Alert, Condition “ZQ Breakout Lite”, then:

• “Any alert() function call” (recommended): one alert for everything, with detailed messages: ticker, timeframe, close, range, location tag, entry, stop and targets for signals; level and zone for retests; the full ladder for TP and stop hits.
• Or a single condition, trigger “Once per bar close”:
  • Long breakout / Short breakout
  • Retest: price came back to the broken level and held.
  • TP1 hit, TP2 hit, TP3 hit, Stop hit (Risk Helper on).

Set it up for your market

How to use it

1. Start with the defaults: the engine plus the retest helper.
2. Add one filter at a time. Most useful first: the session filter (breaks in the active session), then premium/discount (Filter mode keeps longs from the lower half of the bigger range, so you are not buying near its top).
3. Two ways to enter: on the signal close (aggressive), or wait for the Retest marker (price came back to the level and held), which usually gives a tighter stop near the level. The Risk Helper ladder stays anchored at the signal close either way.
4. A “Failed” retest (a close through the far side of the zone) is a warning that the breakout did not hold.
5. Set an alert with “Any alert() function call” and let the alerts bring you to the chart.

Common mistakes: switching every filter on at once (very few signals), using the default Monday to Friday session on crypto, and chasing over-extended candles (use “Skip breaks closing further than”).

Pairs well with: Session Master and Premium/Discount Master (to see the sessions and zones the filters use), VWAP Master and Volume Surge Lite (participation behind the break). Breakout Pro adds profiles, ADX, EMA and higher-timeframe trend filters and a time-of-day volume baseline.

Good to know

• Confirmation: signals and retests appear when their candle closes, never mid-candle.
• Retest timing: the retest needs price to have closed beyond the zone first, so the bar right after a small breakout is usually not a retest. Only the first retest after a signal is marked.
• No-volume symbols (SPX, NDX, DXY, some forex and CFD feeds): the volume filter passes and the HUD notes “No volume data”.
• Session filter on daily or higher charts switches itself off (HUD: “Off (D+)”).
• Ladder checks use each closed bar’s high and low; a bar touching stop and target counts as a stop. No fills, slippage or spreads are modelled.
• Drawing limits: up to 500 labels (oldest removed first on long histories); boxes and ladders are capped by their “Keep past” settings.
• No win rates or performance figures. Not financial advice; the decisions and the risk stay yours.

Version 3 changes

• Fixed for futures, forex and stocks. v1.2’s minimum candle size was 0.0003 price units (it did nothing on MNQ) and the Risk Helper defaulted to percentages (a 0.7% stop is about 140 points on MNQ). Everything is now sized in ATR or ticks, and the Risk Helper defaults to ATR.
• The promised session filter (time zone aware, New York by default so daylight saving is handled) and premium/discount awareness (tag signals, or take longs only from the lower part and shorts only from the upper part of a longer range). Neither existed in v1.2.
• The promised “tighter control over how far price must travel”: break buffer in ATR or ticks, and a maximum distance so over-extended candles are skipped.
• The promised volume and volatility filters, both optional. Symbols with no volume data never get blocked: the volume filter passes and the HUD says so.
• A real entry helper: a retest zone at the broken level, a “Retest” marker and alert when price returns to it and holds. v1.2’s “entry helper” was only the stop and target lines.
• Wick or body ranges, a decisive-close buffer, repeat signals after a fresh range (v1.2 was flip-only), and “Ignore the first bar after a session gap” so the futures halt, weekends and overnight gaps do not print fake breakouts.
• Risk Helper rebuilt: anchored at the signal bar, tick-rounded, hits tracked and shown on each level’s own price tag, optional stop to entry after TP1, 1 to 3 targets, Percent and Points modes, past ladders kept (v1.2 redrew one ladder from the latest bar every bar).
• Alerts with levels for signals, retests and every TP and stop hit.
• HUD with position and size settings (v1.2’s was fixed top right), filter state and notes. Title and version names fixed (v1.2 said v1.1 in one place and V1.2 in another). Dead code removed, every input has a tooltip.