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An Introduction to Bollinger Bands

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What is Bollinger Bands

Bollinger Bands was developed in 1980s by John Bollinger, a well-known technical analyst as a method for traders to identify extreme short-term prices in security. It is a technical analysis indicator that consists of 3 lines: the middle line is a 20-day moving average while the upper and lower lines are both standard deviation calculations. Standard deviation is used because it measures volatility hence it shows how a financial instrument price can vary from its true value.

Bollinger Bands

The Purpose of Bollinger Bands

Bollinger Bands provides a relative definition of high and low. Prices are high at the upper band and low at the lower band. This definition helps technical traders make more systematic trading decisions by comparing price action to the actions of indicators and try to forecast price movements.

Interpreting the Bollinger Bands

The basic interpretation of Bollinger Bands is that prices tend to stay within the bands as the spacing between bands will adjust itself based on the current market volatility. When the price movement is highly volatile, the spacing between the bands will be widening while in low volatility conditions, the spacing will be narrowing.

If the narrow condition stays for a long period of time, the market is consider a sideway market and is expected to have a strong breakout either on upside or downside when the band widen again.

Another interpretation of Bollinger Bands is when the price moves outside the upper band, it is considered “overbought”, a sign for profit taking. When the price drops below the lower band, it is considered “oversold”, triggering a buy signal.

Bollinger Bands has become traders’ tool of choice because it helps them to identify prices that move beyond the bands. As it is important for traders to monitor shifts in volatility, this will help traders to take advantage of unjustifiably high or low prices.


