Level Scope › Market structure
Structure break
A close beyond the last swing that had not yet been broken. Running with the prevailing bias it is a break of structure; against it, a change of character. Both are the same event seen against a bias, so this is one detector with the label in the payload.
What it looks like on a chart
A horizontal line at the swing level that was broken, drawn forward from the breaking bar.
| Timeframe | Bars of history it reads | Settings | Events, last 30 days |
|---|---|---|---|
| M15 | 240 | swing half-width n=20, break on the close | 492 |
| M30 | 240 | swing half-width n=20, break on the close | 254 |
| H1 | 240 | swing half-width n=20, break on the close | 122 |
| H4 | 240 | swing half-width n=20, break on the close | 23 |
| D1 | 240 | swing half-width n=20, break on the close | 3 |
What we measured
Measured at a 24-bar horizon: a structure break continues 75.8% of the time against 74.7% for a matched control. At four bars the apparent edge is larger — and a same-size non-structure breakout does nearly as well, so most of it is “a bar closing through a nearby level keeps going for an hour or two”.
What it does not claim
The break is on the close, never the wick — sources differ and ours is stated rather than assumed. The taxonomy is not settled either: LuxAlgo says plainly that neither usage of CHoCH versus MSS is official, so the convention travels with the event.
Where the definition comes from
LuxAlgo-style: break of the last unbroken swing; CHoCH when it goes against the running bias