Last updated: 8 October 2026. Every screenshot below was recorded on 8 October 2026 on an IQ Option Practice account registered in Brazil, on EUR/USD 5-minute candles; the Chart analysis picture in Step 1 was recorded on 5 October 2026. We placed no real-money trade. The settings come from the platform’s dialog and the calculation from the published source code of the platform’s built-in indicators (Quadcode’s script library). The tested box shows what the rule did on EUR/USD 5-minute candles recorded between 29 September and 5 October 2026; it says nothing about what will happen next.
STARC Bands (Stoller Average Range Channel Bands) draw a channel around a moving average whose width comes from the average true range, the typical size of a candle including gaps. On IQ Option they are drawn over the price chart as an upper band, a middle line and a lower band, and the platform opens them with an ATR period of 15, a moving average period of 5, a multiplier of 1.3 and an exponential average. The rule opens a trade for the duration of the next candle against a close outside a band: a Lower option when the price closes above the upper band, a Higher option when it closes below the lower band. On 5-minute EUR/USD candles recorded between 29 September and 5 October 2026 that rule gave 58 signals; 31 won, 26 lost and 1 tied, 54.4% of the decided trades, level with the 54.1% needed to break even at an 85% payout.
Quick answer
- What it plots: three lines over the price chart: the upper band, the middle line (a moving average of the close) and the lower band.
- Formula: middle = average of the last closes (MA period); bands = middle ± multiplier × the smoothed average true range (ATR period).
- Settings on the platform: Period 15, Mov Avg Period 5, Multiplier 1.3, Source close and Moving Average EMA. The usual description names a multiplier of 2 and a moving average period of 5 to 10.
- Rule: a close above the upper band is a Lower trade for the next candle; a close below the lower band is a Higher trade for the next candle.
- Where: the Volatility list of the Chart analysis panel; search for STARC.
- Tested: 5-minute candles, 58 signals, 31 won and 26 lost (54.4% of the decided trades). Break-even is 54.1% at an 85% payout, and a few days of one pair prove nothing.
How do you add STARC Bands on IQ Option?
Set the chart
Choose the asset, the chart type and the candle size first: the indicator is calculated from the candles on the chart. The examples in this guide use 5-minute candles on EUR/USD. These steps use the web traderoom on a Practice balance, and the numbers in each screenshot match the numbers in the text. If you do not have an account yet, see how to register.
Step 1: Open Chart analysis
Click the indicators button (1), the wave icon in the chart toolbar at the bottom left of the chart. The Chart analysis panel opens with the tabs Indicators, Templates, Widgets and Scripts. Stay on Indicators.
Step 2: Find STARC Bands
Type “STARC” in the Search for indicators box (1), or open the Volatility list, and click STARC Bands (2).
Step 3: Check the settings
The dialog has the tabs Basic settings (1), Colors and display and Script. The Period (2) opens at 15, the number of candles of the average true range. The Mov Avg Period (3) opens at 5, the number of candles of the middle line. The Multiplier (4) opens at 1.3, how many ranges the bands lie from the middle line. The Source (5) opens at close, the price the middle line averages. The Moving Average (6) opens at EMA, the type of the middle line.
Step 4: Check the colours and click Apply
Open the Colors and display tab (1). The tab has four rows: Upper line, Middle line and Lower line, each with a checkbox, a colour box and a line-style box, and Fill, the colour of the area between the bands. The three lines are yellow by default, the middle one a little paler, and the fill is grey. Click Apply (3).
Step 5: Read the lines
Three yellow lines are drawn over the candles: the upper band (1), the middle line (2) and the lower band (3), and the area between the bands is lightly filled. The bands widen when the candles are large and narrow when they are small.
How are the STARC Bands calculated?
The source code of the platform’s indicators takes an exponential moving average of the close over the MA period (5) as the middle line. It measures the true range of every candle, the largest of the candle’s own range and its distance from the previous close, smooths it with Wilder’s running average over the ATR period (15) and multiplies it by the multiplier (1.3). The upper band is the middle line plus that offset and the lower band is the middle line minus it. STARC stands for Stoller Average Range Channel, after Manning Stoller; the usual description writes the same formula with a multiplier of 2. We read the three lines off the platform’s chart at 32 candles of two windows and compared them with this formula: the median difference was 0.01 pip, and the platform draws the point of a candle at its close.
The width depends on the multiplier: a bigger multiplier moves the bands away from each other, a smaller one brings them closer, and narrow bands show more trading chances. In our recording, with the platform’s 1.3, the close was outside a band on 58 of the 1,214 five-minute candles checked (4.8%; the first 60 candles of each unbroken stretch are the warm-up of the indicator); with a multiplier of 2 only 10 signals remained.
What is the rule?
The bands give possible support and resistance: the lower band the support and the upper band the resistance, so a trader buys near the support and sells near the resistance. For options the rule opens a trade at the close of a candle that closes outside a band and lets it last as long as the next candle. Written so that every condition is checked on closed candles:
| Part | Rule |
|---|---|
| Lower signal | A candle closes above the upper band |
| Higher signal | A candle closes below the lower band |
| Entry | At the close of the signal candle |
| Expiry | The duration of the next candle: 5 minutes on 5-minute candles |
The price can run along the bands for a long time, so for trades in the market itself a stop loss and a trailing stop are advised; on a binary option the expiry replaces the stop. During a range it is good to buy near the lower band and sell near the upper band, and clear breaches can signal the end of the range.
Two signals of the recording, step by step
The first Higher signal and the first Lower signal of the rule on 5-minute candles, in time order, not picked by outcome. All times are the platform clock, which is UTC minus three hours; the date is 29 September 2026.
Higher signal, 04:30
The candle before the signal had closed at 1.13555, inside the channel. The candle (2) that opened at 04:30 fell from 1.135555 to a close of 1.13435 at 04:35 (the grey label under it, 1.134270, is its low), 4.98 pips under the lower band (1), which stood at 1.134848. The rule says Higher, and the one-candle trade opens at that close. The next candle (3), from 04:35 to 04:40, closed at 1.134975, 6.25 pips higher: it won.
Lower signal, 09:00
The candle (2) that opened at 09:00 rose from 1.1352 to a close of 1.135815 at 09:05 (the grey label over it, 1.135825, is its high), 0.26 pip over the upper band (1), which stood at 1.135789. The margin is a hair, but the rule has no minimum distance: it is a close over the band. The rule says Lower, and the one-candle trade opens at that close. The next candle (3), from 09:05 to 09:10, closed at 1.135515, 3 pips lower: it won.
The close-outside rule, tested
We scored the rule on the 1,334 five-minute candles of our recording with the platform’s settings, entering at the close of every signal candle and scoring the trade at the close of the next candle. The box also shows the version that counts only the first candle outside a band, a 15-minute trade, 1-minute candles, and two other settings.
Tested on IQ Option: the STARC Bands close-outside rule, EUR/USD candles of 29 September to 5 October 2026
| Asset and candles | EUR/USD binary (regular, not OTC): 1,334 five-minute candles (2026-09-29 01:55 to 2026-10-02 20:55 UTC and 2026-10-04 21:00 to 2026-10-05 17:00 UTC); 1,505 one-minute candles (2026-10-02 18:23 to 2026-10-02 20:59 UTC and 2026-10-04 21:01 to 2026-10-05 19:28 UTC). The candles were recorded from IQ Option’s Practice traderoom. The replay places no orders; it only scores the rule on those closed candles, at an 85% payout. |
|---|---|
| Rule tested | The rule on closed candles, the option opening at the close of the signal candle and lasting one candle: Lower when a candle closes above the upper band, Higher when it closes below the lower band. STARC Bands (15, 5, 1.3, EMA) as the platform draws them. The box lists 5-minute candles first, then the variants. |
| Signals | STARC (15, 5, 1.3), 5-minute candles, one-candle trade: 58 signals (36 Higher, 22 Lower) same, only the first candle outside the band: 37 signals (22 Higher, 15 Lower) same, three-candle trade: 58 signals (36 Higher, 22 Lower) STARC (15, 5, 1.3), 1-minute candles, one-candle trade: 47 signals (31 Higher, 16 Lower) STARC (14, 10, 2), 5-minute candles, one-candle trade: 57 signals (39 Higher, 18 Lower) STARC (15, 5, 2), 5-minute candles, one-candle trade: 10 signals (7 Higher, 3 Lower) |
| Outcomes | STARC (15, 5, 1.3), 5-minute candles, one-candle trade: 31 won, 26 lost, 1 tied; 54.4% of the 57 decided trades won; net +$0.01 per $1 staked at 85% (+$0.04 at 91%) same, only the first candle outside the band: 19 won, 18 lost, 0 tied; 51.4% of the 37 decided trades won; net −$0.05 per $1 staked at 85% (−$0.02 at 91%) same, three-candle trade: 31 won, 27 lost, 0 tied; 53.4% of the 58 decided trades won; net −$0.01 per $1 staked at 85% (+$0.02 at 91%) STARC (15, 5, 1.3), 1-minute candles, one-candle trade: 21 won, 26 lost, 0 tied; 44.7% of the 47 decided trades won; net −$0.17 per $1 staked at 85% (−$0.15 at 91%) STARC (14, 10, 2), 5-minute candles, one-candle trade: 30 won, 26 lost, 1 tied; 53.6% of the 56 decided trades won; net −$0.01 per $1 staked at 85% (+$0.02 at 91%) STARC (15, 5, 2), 5-minute candles, one-candle trade: 6 won, 4 lost, 0 tied; 60.0% of the 10 decided trades won; net +$0.11 per $1 staked at 85% (+$0.15 at 91%) |
| Break-even | At an 85% payout a trade needs to win more than 54.1% of its decided trades to break even (1 ÷ 1.85); at 91%, more than 52.4% (1 ÷ 1.91). |
A replay is only a look back at candles recorded on the dates above: it placed no real orders, covers about four and a half days of one pair, and counts overlapping trades as if they were independent. A short test proves nothing about the future, and no profit and no win rate is promised here. IQ Option’s own blog on backtesting says that most strategies need dozens, and often hundreds, of trades before a result means anything.
With the platform’s settings the rule gave 58 signals, 31 won, 26 lost and 1 tied: 54.4% of the decided trades, with a 95% interval of 42% to 67%. Counting only the first candle outside the band, 37 signals won 51.4%. A 15-minute trade won 53.4% and 1-minute candles with a 1-minute trade 44.7%. The version with the typical values (ATR period 14, MA period 10, multiplier 2) gave 57 signals and won 53.6%; the platform’s periods with a multiplier of 2 gave only 10 signals. Every 5-minute reading sits near the break-even rate and inside the margin of error of it, so none shows an edge.
Pros and Cons of STARC Bands
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| The bands adapt to the size of the recent candles, so they widen in fast markets and narrow in quiet ones. | The price can run along a band for a long time; in a trend the rule keeps trading against it. |
| A clear rule with a fixed trade length. | The 5-minute replay won 54.4%, level with the break-even rate, not above it. |
| The multiplier lets you choose how often the price reaches the bands. | A multiplier of 2 gave only 10 signals in 4.5 days. |
Common mistakes
- Copying the multiplier of 2 and expecting many signals. The platform opens at 1.3; at 2 our recording had 10 signals.
- Confusing STARC Bands with Bollinger Bands. STARC uses the average true range; Bollinger uses the standard deviation of the closes.
- Using it alone. The bands are not suitable as a standalone strategy.
- Keeping the trade longer than the next candle. The rule asks for the duration of the next candle.
- Taking 54.4% as an edge. It is level with the break-even rate on a sample of 57 decided trades.
Related guides
- Bollinger Bands on IQ Option and Keltner Channel
- Donchian Channel and the BB1 strategy
- Trading a ranging market
- All indicator guides and all strategy guides
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What are STARC Bands?
A: Stoller Average Range Channel Bands: a moving average with a band above and below it at a multiple of the average true range.
Q: What are the STARC Bands settings on IQ Option?
A: The dialog opens with Period 15, Mov Avg Period 5, Multiplier 1.3, Source close and Moving Average EMA.
Q: How are STARC Bands different from Bollinger Bands?
A: Both draw a channel around a moving average. Bollinger Bands set the width from the standard deviation of the closes, STARC Bands from the average true range of the candles.
Q: How do I trade STARC Bands?
A: Open a Higher trade when a candle closes below the lower band and a Lower trade when it closes above the upper band, for the duration of the next candle.
Q: Does the STARC Bands strategy win?
A: Not clearly. With the platform settings 31 of 57 decided trades won on 5-minute candles, 54.4%, level with the 54.1% needed at an 85% payout.
Q: Which multiplier should I use?
A: The platform opens at 1.3; 2 is very common in descriptions. A bigger multiplier gives fewer signals: 10 instead of 58 in our recording.
