DARVAS BOX THEORY

A trading strategy developed in 1956 by Nicolas Darvas. It involves buying stocks that are in trading and in a 52 week high volumes. Darvas box is created when the price of a stock rises above the previous 52-week high, but then falls back to a price not far from that high. If the price falls too much, it can be a signal of a false breakout, otherwise the lower price is used as the bottom of the box and the high as the top. Skeptics of Darvas' technique attribute his success to the fact that he was trading in a very bullish market. They also say that returns comparable to the ones he saw can't be attained if this technique is used in a bear market.