A squeeze is a volatility low. The Bollinger Bands contract inside the Keltner Channels, which means recent price movement has fallen below its own typical range — the market is coiling.
Bollinger Bands sit two standard deviations either side of a 20-period average, so they widen and narrow with recent volatility. Keltner Channels sit a multiple of Average True Range either side of the same average, so they track typical range instead. A squeeze is the condition where the Bollinger Bands are inside the Keltner Channels — statistical volatility has dropped below range-based volatility. We use the standard settings: 20 periods, 2 standard deviations for the bands, 1.5 ATR for the channels, on hourly candles.
A squeeze says a move is likely coming. It says nothing at all about direction. That is the single most common mistake made with it — the setup is symmetric, and trading it requires a separate directional read, which is why our screener shows the squeeze next to RSI, trend and the nearest support and resistance rather than on its own.
The other thing worth knowing: squeezes are common. Over two thousand seven hundred coins, a large fraction are in one at any moment, because quiet is the market's default state. The useful filter is a squeeze on a liquid coin near a level, not a squeeze in isolation.
We also record band width as a percentage of price. A squeeze at 0.4% width is a much tighter coil than one at 3%, and the tighter it is, the sharper the expansion tends to be when it comes.
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Hourly Bollinger/Keltner squeeze, ranked by turnover so the liquid ones come first. Full table on the trend scanner.