ChalniTry the demo

Volatility scan

Parabolic SAR Buy Signal Screener

This scan finds stocks whose closing price crossed above the Parabolic SAR (step 0.02, maximum 0.2) on the latest day: the moment the dots flip from above the price to below it.

Run this scan in the live demoFree, no sign-up. The demo uses made-up sample data.

The exact rule

Type this in Chalni: close crossed above parabolic sar

  1. Close crossed above SAR

Find US stocks where the closing price crossed above the Parabolic SAR today.

Formula view
crosses_above(close, psar(0.02, 0.2))
Example chart: Parabolic SAR flips upDaily candles of a made-up sample stock with Parabolic SAR dots. The shaded day is the day the scan fired.
  • Parabolic SAR dots
  • Shaded day: the scan fired
Example from Chalni's made-up sample market, not a real stock. It shows the most recent time this scan fired in the sample US market, picked whether or not the trade worked.

What it means

Parabolic SAR (Stop And Reverse) was introduced by J. Welles Wilder in 1978. It places a dot each day that trails the price and speeds up as the trend goes on. When the price crosses the dots, the indicator "stops and reverses".

Because the dots tighten over time, SAR also works as a trailing stop. Many traders exit when the price closes back below the dots.

How traders use it

  • Add a trend-strength filter such as ADX to avoid flat markets.
  • Use the SAR dot as a trailing stop that moves up every day.
  • Add a 200-day average filter to take buy signals only in uptrends.

Watch out for

  • In sideways markets, SAR flips all the time.
  • Fresh signals often come with a stop far from the price.

Test it before you trust it

Every scan in Chalni sits an exam. First it runs on older data, the practice: each time it picks a stock, the stock is held for 10 trading days and 0.2% is paid in costs. Then it runs on newer data it has never seen, the exam. A scan that only works in practice has just memorised the past.

See the practice and exam results for this scan in the demo (on sample data; real data comes at launch).

Questions

What does Parabolic SAR stand for?

Stop And Reverse. The indicator assumes you are always in the market and flips your position when the price crosses the dots.

What are the standard Parabolic SAR settings?

A step of 0.02 that rises up to a maximum of 0.2. This scan uses those defaults.

Related scans