In this guide
There is no universal definitionThree separable ideasWhat the label cannot tell youHow to model it without market dataThere is no universal definition
Unlike an exchange rule or accounting term, “pre-breakout” does not have one official threshold. One person might mean within 1% of resistance; another may mean a multi-week consolidation below a level. That is why a useful educational page should define the geometry instead of pretending there is a single authoritative signal.
Three separable ideas
Proximity asks how far the current value is from a level. Compression describes the width or contraction of a recent range. Structure describes how highs, lows or a boundary are arranged. Those are different measurements. Combining them into a single “score” would require subjective assumptions and could easily look like a recommendation, so PreBreakout keeps them separate.
What the label cannot tell you
Being close to a level does not imply that the level will break. A narrow range does not imply direction. Repeated tests of a level may matter to some chart methods, but the count alone is not a probability. The safest way to use the term for learning is as a location label, not as a prediction.
How to model it without market data
Choose fictional values such as current 98 and reference 100. The Distance to Level Calculator shows the gap as 2 units and roughly 2.04%. Then change the hypothetical current value to 99.5 and observe the arithmetic. Nothing about the calculation requires a ticker or live feed.