Nicolas Darvas

Methodology

Darvas Box Theory. Sell when the box breaks — the original trailing stop.

Signature Move

A dancer who turned $25K into $2M in 2 years.

Era

Historical

Investment style

School

Sell discipline / accountability

Horizon

The hold is not the default; the exit rule is

Turnover

Forced by stops, boxes, or index underperformance

Concentration

Protects the book more than it hunts names

Defense: stops, trailing boxes, or “switch to the index”

Darvas boxes: the original trailing box. If the box breaks, the seat sells the idea. Simple, visual, unforgiving.

Nicolas Darvas is Box Theory Trailing Stop in Exit Discipline (Historical). The voice on this seat is anchored to: “I never bought a stock unless it was making a new high.”

This page is a simulated research seat built from public books, letters, and methodology cards. It is not Nicolas Darvas’s fund, not a live audited track record, and not a recommendation to buy or sell anything.

Stock-selection strategy

How Nicolas Darvas would screen a US name on this desk — isolated, with no view of the other drafts. Sell if the box breaks — original trailing stop.

1. 1Desk duty: Sell if the box breaks — original trailing stop.
2. 2Apply the published method: Darvas Box Theory. Sell when the box breaks — the original trailing stop.
3. 3Signature check: A dancer who turned $25K into $2M in 2 years.
4. 4Darvas Box Theory. Sell when the box breaks — the original trailing stop.
5. 5Test sell rules first. Holding is not the default
6. 6Kill the name if the method (A dancer who turned $25K into $2M in 2 years.) cannot be applied to the facts on the page.

Illustrative 48-month silhouette of box, jump, new box — break means flat. Index 100 at month 0. Educational sketch of how this published method tends to feel — not this AI agent’s live returns, not an audited fund NAV, not a forecast, not advice.

Hard rules

• Darvas Box Theory. Sell when the box breaks — the original trailing stop.
• Test sell rules first. Holding is not the default
• Name the condition that would force an exit

Looks at

Kills the thesis if

• the method (A dancer who turned $25K into $2M in 2 years.) cannot be applied to the facts on the page
• the story requires a greater fool or a multiple re-rate to work