Squeeze Momentum by Timeframe: 45 Settings Tested
45 Squeeze Momentum settings backtested on USD/JPY across 2025 and 2024. Four-hour bars fell from 26 profitable settings to 5, and 15-minute was its best.
Squeeze Momentum detects a "squeeze" (Bollinger Bands contracting inside the Keltner Channel) and takes the direction the market expands in when that squeeze releases. Contraction, then expansion.
I tested three parameters across 45 combinations on USD/JPY through the whole of 2025, on three timeframes, then ran the same 45 on 2024.
On four-hour bars, the profitable count fell from 26 of 45 settings in 2024 to 5 in 2025. Median annual net moved from +251 to −461 pips, and only 1 of 45 settings was profitable in both years.
Which timeframe can you use it on?
29 of 45 settings were profitable in both years on the 15-minute chart, against 24 on hourly and 1 on four-hour.
| Timeframe | Profitable 2025 | 2025 median | Profitable 2024 | 2024 median | Both years | Trades a year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15-minute | 37 / 45 | +273 pips | 36 / 45 | +468 pips | 29 / 45 | ~366 |
| 1-hour | 30 / 45 | +168 pips | 36 / 45 | +814 pips | 24 / 45 | ~81 |
| 4-hour | 5 / 45 | −461 pips | 26 / 45 | +251 pips | 1 / 45 | ~21 |
The number profitable in both years was 29 of 45 on 15-minute bars, compared with 24 on hourly and 1 on four-hour.
The trade count is why. Waiting for a squeeze to release produces few signals to begin with: 81 a year on hourly, about 21 on four-hour. The problem here is too few trades, not too many.
Even on 15-minute bars it takes about 366 trades a year, under a tenth of what the other indicators produce there. Light on cost, with enough sample to read.
Does the winner hold the next year?
On hourly bars it did.
| Setting | 2025 annual net | 2024 annual net |
|---|---|---|
| Default 20/2/1.5 | +398.3 pips | +1,530.5 pips |
| 10/2/1 | +1,234.2 pips | +1,536.6 pips |
| 20/2.5/2 | +624.7 pips | +2,732.0 pips |
| 14/1.5/1.5 | −1,152.8 pips | +2,029.9 pips |
The 10/2/1 setting took 225 trades and made +1,234.2 pips in 2025, then +1,536.6 pips in 2024. The 20/2.5/2 setting fell from +2,732.0 pips in 2024 to +624.7 pips in 2025.
The default is positive in both, but its +398.3 pips in 2025 sits more than 800 pips behind the top of the table.
How did the four-hour default do?
It won 4 of its 23 trades.
| Setting | 2025 annual net | 2024 annual net |
|---|---|---|
| Default 20/2/1.5 | −967.3 pips | +5.6 pips |
| 20/2.5/1.5 | +295.5 pips | −188.9 pips |
| 10/1.5/1.5 | −1,147.7 pips | +1,683.0 pips |
| 20/1.5/2 | −2,399.9 pips | +1,351.4 pips |
The default took 23 trades at a 17.39% win rate in 2025: four winners out of 23, which is all that number says.
The 20/2.5/1.5 setting made +295.5 pips in 2025 from 11 trades, with a 54.55% win rate and 2.507 profit factor. Those figures came from six wins, and its 2024 annual net was −188.9 pips.
Four-hour settings trade 0 to 80 times a year, and 8 of the 45 never traded at all. One of 45 was profitable in both years.
What do the three settings change?
The period sets the value; the two multipliers only decide when you enter. The three parameters do not do the same kind of work.
- Period: feeds the momentum calculation. It sets the value
- Bollinger multiplier and Keltner multiplier: used only to detect the squeeze. They do not change the momentum value
So the multipliers decide when a trade happens and the period decides which way. Tightening them (wider Bollinger, narrower Keltner) makes the squeeze harder to satisfy and cuts the signal count.
On hourly bars in 2025 the trade count ranged from 0 to 319: tighten too far and 3 of the 45 settings never trade in a year.
What win rate should you expect?
The median win rate across the 45 hourly settings in 2025 was 41.2%. On four-hour bars, even the 29 settings with at least 10 trades ranged from 16.67% to 54.55%. At about 21 trades a year, win rate cannot be interpreted without trade count and annual net pips.
Squeeze Momentum settings and display
| Platform | How to add it |
|---|---|
| MT4 / MT5 | Not included. Download an .ex4 or .mq4 into MQL4/Indicators (MQL5/Indicators on MT5), restart |
| TradingView | In the indicator list as "Squeeze Momentum" |
| Browser (Formiq) | In the indicator list, with the period and both band multipliers adjustable |
How this was measured
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Pair | USD/JPY |
| Period | 2025-01-01 to 2025-12-31 (2024 run identically for comparison) |
| Timeframes | 15-minute / 1-hour / 4-hour |
| Bars tested | 6,226 hourly bars in 2025; 24,903 on 15-minute, 1,610 on 4-hour |
| Buy | On the bar the squeeze releases, if momentum is positive |
| Sell | On the bar the squeeze releases, if momentum is negative |
| Exit | When momentum crosses zero against the position — no stop, no target, no time exit |
| Costs | 0.3 pip spread, zero slippage, 0.1 lot |
| Combinations | 5 periods (10–40) × 3 Bollinger multipliers (1.5, 2, 2.5) × 3 Keltner multipliers (1, 1.5, 2) = 45 |
| Method | Executed in Formiq's backtester; pips recomputed from each trade's fill prices |
The same method applied to OsMA, Accelerator Oscillator, Stoch RSI, STC, WaveTrend, QQE, Aroon, RVI, Supertrend, Williams %R and MFI.
Notes
- One pair, two years
- Squeeze Momentum implementations differ (how the momentum regression is taken, which midline it uses). These figures come from Formiq's
- Entries are restricted to the bar a squeeze releases on; momentum turns during a squeeze are not taken
- Entries and exits both fill at bar closes
- The spread is modelled as a flat 0.3 pips
- Four-hour settings trade 0 to 80 times a year and 8 of 45 never trade. Win rates and profit factors at that count are wide numbers
Questions people ask
- What are the best Squeeze Momentum settings?
- On hourly bars in 2025, the largest annual net came from 10/2/1: 225 trades and +1,234.2 pips. It also made +1,536.6 pips in 2024. The default 20/2/1.5 made +398.3 pips in 2025 and +1,530.5 pips in 2024. Both were profitable in both years, but by different amounts.
- Which timeframe suits Squeeze Momentum?
- 15-minute and hourly: 29 of 45 settings profitable in both years on 15-minute and 24 of 45 on hourly, against 1 of 45 on four-hour. Four-hour settings trade between 0 and 77 times a year, and 8 of the 45 never traded at all.
- How is Squeeze Momentum used?
- A squeeze is Bollinger Bands sitting inside the Keltner Channel. This test entered on the bar the squeeze released, in the direction momentum pointed. The two band multipliers only affect the squeeze detection: the momentum value itself depends on the period alone.
- What win rate does it produce?
- The median win rate across the 45 hourly settings in 2025 was 41.2%. On four-hour bars, even settings with at least 10 trades ranged from 16.67% to 54.55%, while the average setting traded only about 21 times. Trade count and annual net pips are needed to interpret those win rates.
- Is Squeeze Momentum built into MetaTrader?
- No, neither MT4 nor MT5 includes it. You download an .ex4 or .mq4 into MQL4/Indicators (MQL5/Indicators on MT5) and restart. TradingView lists it as "Squeeze Momentum". Formiq's charts include it with the period and both band multipliers adjustable.
Formiq is a free browser-based FX terminal with replay practice and no-code backtesting. Open the chart or see what the free plan includes.