InsideBar Trading System – MANUAL – Analytics & Forecasts – 27 February 2026

What is Inside Bar Trading System?

Inside Bar Trading System helps you spot Inside Bar breakout patterns on your MetaTrader 5 charts — automatically. The indicator scans every candle, validates containment and quality, and shows you only the best breakout opportunities with clear pending entry orders, stop losses, and profit targets already calculated. It works on any market and any timeframe, giving you more time to focus on your trading decisions instead of searching for compression setups.

What Are Inside Bar Patterns?

Inside Bar patterns are powerful breakout structures that appear when price compresses inside the range of the preceding candle — storing energy before releasing in one direction.

Bullish Inside Bar Breakout (Buy Stop above Mother High)

The Mother Bar (the first candle) shows a wide range that fully contains the Inside Bar that follows. The Inside Bar’s high is lower than the Mother Bar’s high, and its low is higher than the Mother Bar’s low — the market has compressed entirely within the first candle’s range. This compression signals that buyers and sellers are coiling, with neither side dominating. When price breaks above the Mother Bar’s high, it confirms the bullish breakout direction and activates the pending Buy Stop order automatically.

Bearish Inside Bar Breakout (Sell Stop below Mother Low)

The same containment structure, but the breakout direction is downward. After the Mother Bar establishes its range and the Inside Bar compresses within it, a break below the Mother Bar’s low confirms the bearish breakout. The pending Sell Stop order triggers automatically when price crosses the Mother Bar’s low, putting you in the trade at the moment the compression releases.

When you see these patterns forming near important support or resistance levels or after clear directional moves, they become even more reliable signals for potential trend continuation or reversal breakouts.

How the Indicator Finds Patterns

The indicator scans your charts in real-time and checks each potential pattern against multiple quality requirements:

1. Checks that the current bar is fully contained within the previous bar (Mother Bar contains Inside Bar by range: high and low are both inside)
2. Validates Mother Bar significance — body and range must meet minimum ATR thresholds to confirm a meaningful containing structure
3. Confirms tight containment — Inside Bar range must be sufficiently smaller than Mother Bar range, ensuring genuine compression rather than near-equal bars
4. Determines direction from trend context — several bars before the Mother Bar establish whether a bullish or bearish breakout is expected
5. Checks for special variants — Harami Cross (doji Inside Bar) and Double Inside (nested containment) receive quality bonuses

Only patterns that pass all these checks appear on your chart, so you don’t waste time on weak or invalid setups.

Quality Score — How Good Is the Pattern?

Every pattern gets a quality score from 0.00 to 1.00. This helps you focus on the best trading opportunities.

What the Score Means

The indicator checks how significant the Mother Bar is (larger body and range relative to ATR = stronger containment structure), how tight the compression is (smaller Inside Bar relative to Mother Bar = more energy stored), and whether the market context supports a clear breakout direction. Patterns with strong containment, meaningful Mother Bars, and directional bias from prior bars score highest.

• Grade A (0.80 – 1.00) — Excellent: Best signals, highest probability setups
• Grade B (0.60 – 0.79) — Good: Reliable setups worth trading
• Grade C (0.40 – 0.59) — Average: Needs additional confirmation
• Grade D (0.20 – 0.39) — Below Average: Risky, use with caution
• Grade F (0.00 – 0.19) — Poor: Avoid trading these signals

Quality Threshold Setting

By default, the indicator only shows patterns scoring 0.30 or higher. You can adjust this in the settings:

• Raise to 0.50-0.70: See only the best signals (fewer but higher quality)
• Lower to 0.15-0.25: See more signals (more frequent but mixed quality)
• Tip: Start with the default 0.30 and adjust based on your backtest results

What You See on the Chart

When the indicator detects an Inside Bar pattern, it draws everything you need to know directly on the chart:

Signal Markers

• Arrow icons: A green upward arrow for Bullish Inside Bar Breakout signals, a red downward arrow for Bearish Inside Bar Breakout signals, placed at the Inside Bar candle
• Quality labels: The quality score (e.g., “Q:0.72”) displayed next to each signal arrow so you can assess strength at a glance

Trading Lines

• Entry line: A blue horizontal line at the Buy Stop or Sell Stop entry price (Mother Bar high + buffer for bullish, Mother Bar low − buffer for bearish)
• Stop Loss line: A red horizontal line at the opposite Mother Bar extreme (with ATR buffer) labeled “SL”
• Take Profit lines: Green horizontal lines at TP1 (1R), TP2 (1.5R), TP3 (2R), and TP4 (3R) distances from entry, each labeled accordingly

Visual Zones

• Pattern highlight: A shaded rectangular zone highlighting the Mother Bar and Inside Bar pair for quick visual identification
• Tracking dots: Small colored dots below/above each bar that change color as the signal progresses through its lifecycle states

Signal Lifecycle

Signals progress through different states, shown by changing colors and tracking dots:

1. Pending: Pattern just detected, pending order placed, waiting for price to reach Mother Bar extreme
2. Triggered: Entry price reached, Buy Stop or Sell Stop activated, trade is active
3. Target Hit: Price reached a take profit level (signal turns green)
4. Stop Hit: Price hit stop loss (signal turns red)
5. Cancelled: Signal invalidated before entry — 3-bar timeout, opposite breakout, or Mother Bar engulfed (signal disappears or grays out)

You can watch your signals evolve in real-time without opening any menus or panels.

Settings You Can Adjust

Here are the main settings that control how the indicator finds and displays Inside Bar patterns:

Settings Tips

• Start with all default settings and let the indicator run for a few days to see how it performs
• If you get too many signals, switch to STRICT preset, raise the quality threshold, or lower the Max Inside/Mother Range Ratio
• If signals are too rare, lower the quality threshold or reduce the Require Trend Bars count
• Always backtest any setting changes before using them on a live account

Best Timeframes and Markets

Recommended Timeframes

• H1 — Quality: High | Frequency: Medium | Best for: Intraday breakout traders on Gold/Forex
• H4 — Quality: Very High | Frequency: Low-Medium | Best for: Swing traders wanting reliable setups
• D1 — Quality: Highest | Frequency: Low | Best for: Position traders, most reliable Inside Bar signals
• M30 — Quality: Medium-High | Frequency: Medium-High | Best for: Scalpers on volatile pairs

Best Markets

• XAUUSD (Gold): Strong Inside Bar patterns on H1/H4 due to high volatility and clear structure
• EURUSD, GBPUSD, USDJPY: Work well on H1 and above, clear containment patterns
• US30, NAS100: Index markets produce clean Inside Bars on H4 and Daily
• GBPJPY, EURJPY: Cross pairs with high volatility — excellent for breakout entries

The indicator works on any symbol and timeframe, but these combinations tend to produce the most reliable signals.

Getting Started — Quick Setup

Follow these steps to start using Inside Bar Trading System:

1. Open MetaTrader 5 and load a chart — we recommend starting with XAUUSD on H1
2. In the Navigator panel on the left, expand “Indicators” → “Custom” and find “Inside Bar Trading System”
3. Drag the indicator onto your chart
4. A settings window appears — click OK to use the default settings for your first session
5. Watch for arrow signals appearing on your chart with entry, SL, and TP lines drawn automatically
6. After observing a few signals, adjust the Quality Threshold or Detection Preset if you want fewer or more signals
7. Optional: Go to the Alerts tab in settings and enable push notifications to receive signals on your mobile device

That’s it! The indicator is now scanning your charts automatically and will alert you when high-quality Inside Bar patterns appear.

All Features at a Glance

• Automatic Inside Bar detection with range containment validation
• 6-factor weighted quality scoring (bodyATR 25%, relativeRange 20%, containment gate 20%, bodyPosition 15%, dirChanged 12%, closeVsRange 8%)
• Harami Cross variant detection (doji Inside Bar) with +0.15 quality bonus
• Double Inside Bar variant detection with +0.10 quality bonus
• PENDING entry mode (Buy Stop / Sell Stop orders at Mother Bar extremes)
• 3-bar invalidation timeout for stale setups
• Detection preset system (Standard, Strict, Custom)
• Configurable trend context requirement
• Signal states and lifecycle tracking (Pending → Active → Finished)
• Quality filter to reject weak patterns below threshold
• Extreme zone filter (overbought/oversold rejection)
• Stoploss hunt filter (liquidity sweep validation)
• Opposite signal filter (prevent conflicting signals)
• Risk/Reward with 3 stop loss methods (Donchian, ATR, Pattern)
• Up to 4 take profit levels (TP1-TP4)
• Donchian Channel trailing stop loss
• MTF Scanner (up to 150 symbols × 8 timeframes)
• Market structure analysis (BOS / CHOCH)
• 4-channel alert system (popup, sound, push, email)
• Signal statistics dashboard
• Professional chart themes (Dark, Light, Custom)
• EA signal buffers for automated trading

For detailed guides on each feature, see the MANUAL included with the indicator.

Common Questions

Q: Why does the indicator use pending orders instead of market orders?

A: Inside Bar is a breakout pattern. The entry should only trigger when price breaks beyond the Mother Bar range, confirming the breakout direction. Pending orders (Buy Stop/Sell Stop) ensure you only enter if the breakout actually happens — you never enter a trade just because compression was detected.

Q: What’s the difference between Inside Bar and Harami?

A: Inside Bar uses range containment (high/low of the inner candle are inside the outer candle’s high/low). Harami uses body containment (open/close). Inside Bar is a structural breakout pattern; Harami is a reversal pattern. This indicator detects Inside Bar, not Harami.

Q: How do I reduce the number of signals?

A: Switch to STRICT preset, raise the quality threshold, increase Require Trend Bars, or lower the Max Inside/Mother Range Ratio for tighter containment.

Q: What happens if the breakout doesn’t occur?

A: The indicator has a built-in 3-bar invalidation timeout. If price doesn’t break the Mother Bar range within 3 bars after the Inside Bar, the signal expires automatically. Additional invalidation triggers include: opposite breakout occurring first, the Mother Bar being engulfed by a subsequent candle, or a new Inside Bar forming.

Q: Can I use this for both scalping and swing trading?

A: Yes. Use M30-H1 for scalping with Standard preset, and H4-D1 for swing trading with Strict preset. The TP ratios (1R, 1.5R, 2R, 3R) work well across timeframes.

What’s New — Version v1.00

This is the v1.00 release of Inside Bar Trading System. Key features include:

• Automatic Inside Bar detection on all timeframes with range containment validation
• 6-factor quality scoring with per-factor weights tuned for compression breakout setups
• Harami Cross and Double Inside variant detection with quality bonuses
• PENDING entry mode with Buy Stop / Sell Stop at Mother Bar extremes
• 3-bar invalidation timeout with multiple cancellation triggers
• Standard, Strict, and Custom detection preset system
• Multi-timeframe scanner monitoring up to 150 symbols × 8 timeframes simultaneously
• Seven-layer signal filtering system
• Donchian Channel trailing stop
• Four-channel alert system (popup, push, email, sound)
• Signal statistics dashboard with win/loss tracking
• EA signal buffers for iCustom() automated trading integration

Getting Help

If you have questions or need support:

I’m committed to helping you get the most out of this indicator.

Ready to Start?

Inside Bar Trading System is designed to save you time and help you find high-probability Inside Bar patterns automatically. Attach the indicator to your chart and start with the default settings — you can fine-tune everything later as you get comfortable with how it works.

Happy trading!

Ich Khiem Nguyen

Inside Bar Trading System v1.00 — Created 2026-02-24