Inside Bar and Outside Bar Breakout MT5 Scanner

Purpose of the Inside Bar and Outside Bar Breakout Scanner Indicator:

The Inside Bar & Outside Bar Breakout Scanner is an advanced dashboard designed to scan multiple instruments and timeframes simultaneously. Its primary function is to identify two powerful candlestick patterns—the Inside Bar (IB) and the Outside Bar (OB)—and then to detect and classify breakouts from these formations. The indicator presents its findings in a clean, organized table, signaling potential trend continuation or reversal opportunities at a glance.

Key Concepts

1. Inside Bar (IB)

• Definition: An Inside Bar signals a period of market consolidation. It begins when a candle's price range is fully contained within the range of the preceding, larger candle (the Mother Bar). The scanner is designed to handle situations where this consolidation extends over multiple candles. It identifies the Mother Bar at the start of the consolidation and then monitors the subsequent price action, waiting for a decisive breakout from that entire consolidation pattern. It effectively analyzes the whole structure, not just a single Inside Bar.

• Market Meaning: This pattern indicates a drop in volatility and market indecision. A breakout from the Mother Bar's range often signals the start of the next directional move.

2. Outside Bar (OB)

An Outside Bar, also known as an Engulfing Bar, signals a sudden expansion of volatility and a decisive power shift between buyers and sellers.

• Definition: An Outside Bar is a candle whose price range completely engulfs the range of the preceding candle. In this case, the Outside Bar itself is the Mother Bar.

• Market Meaning: This pattern often occurs at significant market turning points or during high-impact news events. It shows a strong conviction in one direction that has completely overwhelmed the previous market sentiment.

3. Breakout Logic

The scanner's core function is not just to find the patterns, but to wait for a confirmed breakout from the Mother Bar. This confirmation has a very specific rule implemented in the indicator:

A valid breakout is confirmed only when a candle closes above the Mother Bar's high or closes below the Mother Bar's low.

This is a critical distinction. A candle's wick (its high or low) can temporarily pierce the Mother Bar's range, but if the candle does not close outside of it, the indicator will not register it as a breakout. It waits for a decisive close, which serves as a stronger confirmation of the market's intent.

4. Breakout Types: Reversal vs. Continuation

This is the most crucial part of the indicator's logic. Every detected breakout is automatically classified based on its context within the recent price action. This is done by checking if the pattern formed at a significant short-term high or low.

• Reversal Breakout

  • What it means: A signal that the market may be reversing its recent short-term direction. The breakout occurs against the prevailing momentum.

  • Logic:

    • The pattern formed at a local low, and the price broke out upwards (Green arrow  ▲ ).

    • The pattern formed at a local high, and the price broke out downwards (Red arrow  ▼ ).

• Continuation Breakout

  • What it means: A signal that a potential reversal has failed, and the breakout is continuing the original market direction. It can be seen as a sign of trend strength.

  • Logic:

    • The pattern formed at a local high, but the price broke out upwards anyway (Teal arrow  ▲ ).

    • The pattern formed at a local low, but the price broke out downwards anyway (Brown arrow  ▼ ).

Interpreting the Panel and Legend

The indicator's dashboard is its main interface, displaying a grid of instruments and timeframes.

• Rows: Financial instruments.

• Columns: Timeframes.

• ·  (dot) symbol: Indicates there is no active breakout signal for that instrument and timeframe.

• ▲  or  ▼  symbol: Indicates a breakout has been detected. The color of the arrow defines its type (reversal vs. continuation), as explained by the legend.

• Tooltip: Hovering the mouse cursor over any symbol in the table will display detailed information about the signal (e.g., "EURUSD H1 - IB - Reversal Breakout down").

At the bottom of the panel, a legend clearly explains the meaning of the arrow colors.

Input Parameters

When you add the indicator to your chart, a settings window will appear with the following options, grouped into categories.

Scanner Settings

• What to scan: current symbol or a list?
  Allows you to choose whether the scanner should analyze only the instrument on the active chart ( current ) or the entire list defined below ( list ).

• List of instruments separated by comma
  Enter the list of symbols you want to scan, separated by commas.
  Example:  EURUSD,GBPUSD,DE40,XAUUSD

• Timeframes separated by comma (e.g., "M15,H1,D1")
  Similarly, enter the timeframes you want to analyze, separated by commas.
  Example:  H1,H4,D1,W1

Pattern Logic

• Detect Inside Bar
  Set to  true  if you want the indicator to search for Inside Bar patterns.

• Detect Outside Bar
  Set to  true  if you want the indicator to search for Outside Bar patterns.

• Number of past bars to check
  This sets how far back (in candles) the indicator will search for the last IB or OB pattern to check for a breakout.

• Number of bars for extreme check
  This is a key parameter that defines the period for identifying local highs and lows. It directly influences whether a breakout is classified as a  Reversal  or  Continuation . A smaller value means higher sensitivity to very short-term extremes.

Alerts & Performance

• Enable alerts
  Enables ( true ) or disables ( false ) pop-up alerts in the terminal when a signal is found.

• Timer period in seconds (lower value = faster status updates)
  Determines how often (in seconds) the indicator checks if a new candle has formed on any of the scanned timeframes. A value of  1  is optimal, ensuring a fast response without straining the system.

Panel Appearance

This section contains all parameters responsible for the visual aspect of the panel:

• Subwindow number (0 = main chart): Sets the window where the panel will appear (0 = main chart window).

• Panel X-coordinate / Panel Y-coordinate: The position of the panel on the chart.

• Font size in the panel: The font size for the text in the table and legend.

• Title color: The color of the main indicator title.

• Text color in the table: The color for the text in the table (instrument names, timeframes, and the  ·  symbol).

The indicator functions as a scanner and displays signals in a panel only. It does NOT draw rectangles or other graphic objects marking Inside Bar (IB) or Outside Bar (OB) setups directly on the chart.