The basic principles of Box Theory are easy to understand, however if I want to apply it to futures trading of some of the major global indices, do I box just the open and close spread of the specific exchange of interest, eg NYSE open/close for the SP500, or German (Frankfurt) stock exchange open/close for the DAX, OR do I box the whole almost 24 hours that the future exchanges operate ?
If it’s the original Darvas theory for the futures, probably use the nearly-24-hours period of the futures exchange day, it must be logical to do this? Strictly there is no time scale with Darvas Box and you trade only all time high breakouts. It’s for strong upward trend markets only.
I doubt if anyone really uses it now. But perhaps I am wrong?
It was an early precursor of the Turtle System which the turtles, and some expert authors, and Linda Bradford Raschke say has not worked at all well now, at least for a couple of decades, maybe longer. Futures trading forum is a better place to ask about this than the beginners forex forum?
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Thanks Diva, and thanks for the tip. There appears to be several versions of box theory on the web, all with the same underlying principle of support and resistance.
I doubt it also.
In a strongly unidirectional market it could maybe be a valid method of stop loss placement and adjustment, though? If using it that way, certainly the entire 24-hour futures session, you’d think, not just the “open session” of the underlying?
What has drawn your attention to Darvas box theory, if you don’t mind my asking, @fibrowest ?
Box Theory - I stumbled upon it on the internet when looking for some trading strategies to suit my preferred time frame. - short to medium. It can be used as a basis for determining support and resistance levels, and to identify good entry points. Most of the YouTube presentations don’t even mention the name Darvas, for what I have seen . . . They just talk about boxes in setting up both short and long positions However at the moment It looks like the theory would work easiest for me in ranging markets rather than strongly upward trending markets. This is contrary to Darvas’s intention. I still have lots of research to do.
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That makes sense because he was around some decades before the internet was invented. 
“Boxes” come into various trading systems, all the way from Darvas (or even earlier) right up to current - and much faster-moving - stuff like Bob Volman’s forex trading. At Babypips, I’d guess that will understandably be most people’s natural frame of reference for the idea of box breakouts.
From what I’ve seen, range trading is directly opposite to Darvas’s ideas, which were about strongly trending markets only. Apart from going dancing with his sister, of course. Don’t we all. Good luck.
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Mine, definitely. I read both Volman’s books (with difficulty!). They helped me a lot. I just don’t understand why Volman trades CFDs and he never explained this well.
But like Darvas and Turtles and Raschke and others he is trading box breakouts, not in ranges as @fibrowest intends, so I will stop there!
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I don’t go dancing with his sister. She was born in 1919, so not a surprise?