Acceleration Bands Indicator Explained

Price Headley's Acceleration Bands widen in proportion to each bar's own high-low range around a simple average. The design goal: catch moves that are accelerating — two consecutive closes outside a band mark a market shifting into a higher gear.

How It Works

• Upper/lower bands scale with (high − low) ÷ (high + low), around an SMA.
• Proportional widening keeps the bands meaningful across price levels.
• The signal convention is two consecutive closes beyond a band.

How to Trade It

Trade the two-close breakout in the band's direction and stay until price closes back inside — the classic Headley usage for capturing acceleration phases. Works best on instruments prone to momentum runs (indices, crypto, momentum stocks).

Building It in Setup.Cash

Add Acceleration Bands in the strategy builder — the length input controls its sensitivity — and use its value in any entry, exit, or filter condition. You can also combine it with other tools in the Indicators Lab or via the AI indicator generator. See Bollinger Bands for the mean-reversion counterpart. For the full category overview, see the volatility & statistics library guide.

Volatility indicators qualify trades rather than generate them — backtest your system with and without this filter and compare the drawdowns.