Darvas boxes: what a dancer taught traders about trailing stops

The box theory, the losses that preceded it, and why the method matters more than the money.

Darvas was a professional dancer who traded by telegram while touring. The book is short, and half of it is him losing money on tips.

The box

He noticed a rising stock tends to trade within a range for a while, then break to a higher range. He drew boxes around those ranges, bought breakouts to a new box, and placed a stop just under it. If the stock fell back in, he was out.

Why it worked

Not because boxes are magic — because the method forced a trailing stop and removed his opinion from the exit. He called himself a “techno-fundamentalist”: fundamentals to choose the candidates, price to time them.

Your own take goes here — how this compares to how you actually trail stops.

See the trades behind the writing

Every index-options position I hold, live, with running P&L.

Track record

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