Holy Grail (3-1) & Nirvana (1-3)
The outside bar and the inside bar are the two extremes of the Strat alphabet — maximum violence and maximum quiet. Put them next to each other, in either order, and you get two of the method's most respected sequences: the Holy Grail (3 then 1) and Nirvana (1 then 3).
Holy Grail: silence after violence
An outside bar runs both sides' stops; the inside bar that follows means nobody pressed the advantage. All of that two-sided energy is now coiled inside one candle's range, with clean triggers at the inside bar's high and low. The break is canon-named a 3-1-2 — and if the coil compresses one more bar first, you have the rarer 3-1-1.
Nirvana: the coil that exploded both ways
Nirvana inverts the order: compression first, then an outside bar that takes BOTH of the inside bar's triggers. Both breakout crowds entered and both are now trapped somewhere inside one violent candle. Resolution tends to be fast, because whichever direction escapes the mother bar's range forces the other crowd out entirely.
Trading either one
Both setups arm two triggers and demand no directional opinion in advance. Trade the break of the governing range — the inside bar's extremes for the Holy Grail, the outside bar's extremes for Nirvana — with the stop at the 50% of the broken bar and the range's other side as the first magnet. Full timeframe continuity decides how much conviction the break deserves.
See it live, right now
Every concept on this page is detected in real time across 190+ tickers — candle typing, trigger levels, and alerts the second a level breaks.
FAQ
Why is 3-1 called the Holy Grail?
Community naming for what the sequence delivers: a defined, tight trigger (the inside bar) sitting on top of an oversized fuel tank (the outside bar's trapped crowds).
What is the difference between Nirvana and a plain outside bar?
Context. A 3 after a 1 means the compression's BOTH breakout levels were run in one candle — two trapped crowds instead of one, which is what makes the resolution violent.
What is a 3-1-2?
The Holy Grail resolving: outside bar, inside bar, then the directional break of the inside bar. Up through its high is a 3-1-2 up; down through its low, a 3-1-2 down.
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Educational content, not financial advice. Patterns describe probabilities, not promises.