Bollinger bands

osho67 · Aug 13, 2008

Can bollinger bands work day trading index futures?What are the drawbacks of this technical tool?

It seems there are not many people here on ET use bollinger bands. There must be some reason

Plese comment and advise. Thanks.

maninjapan · Aug 13, 2008

u can use them to fade choppy markets or use them as a breakout point to trade with the trend, the problem lies with knowing which way to use them at which time, thats the problem with them.

osho67 · Aug 13, 2008

Quote from maninjapan:

u can use them to fade choppy markets or use them as a breakout point to trade with the trend, the problem lies with knowing which way to use them at which time, thats the problem with them.

Thanks for the reply.If you short when it touches the upper band ,will the trade work most of the time? and vice versa ofcourse.

tortoise · Aug 13, 2008

Quote from osho67:

Thanks for the reply.If you short when it touches the upper band ,will the trade work most of the time? and vice versa ofcourse.

no.

cosmic · Aug 13, 2008

Quote from osho67:

Thanks for the reply.If you short when it touches the upper band ,will the trade work most of the time? and vice versa ofcourse.

depends all on the trend & strengh osho67. if you have stable ranges & no trend strength it's a fine scalping tool, but if volume picks up & you get strong trending action you wanna step back from that. on the other hand many people count the pushes outside the bands & try to take the second & third if div is present, works better

Tums · Aug 13, 2008

Quote from osho67:
Thanks for the reply.If you short when it touches the upper band ,will the trade work most of the time? and vice versa ofcourse.

I would suggest you to read Bollinger's book first before making up entry signals from the gut.

osho67 · Aug 13, 2008

Quote from Tums:

I would suggest you to read Bollinger's book first before making up entry signals from the gut.

Thanks I will be ordering the book. Not many other books on Bolinger bands.

It seems not many using this technical analysis. But I will try. Might be a hidden treasure.

maninjapan · Aug 14, 2008

its another one of those indicators that seems to offer very clear signals when you look at it on a historical chart, but when you get it in real time its not that easy.

If you used it with a filter that indicates trend or non trending market you oculd use it.

why not just google 'Bollinger band trading strategies' or similar. There is a ton of stuff out there.

osho67 · Aug 14, 2008

Quote from maninjapan:

its another one of those indicators that seems to offer very clear signals when you look at it on a historical chart, but when you get it in real time its not that easy.

If you used it with a filter that indicates trend or non trending market you oculd use it.

why not just google 'Bollinger band trading strategies' or similar. There is a ton of stuff out there.

Thanks. I have already started reading more stuff on google.

Which filter indicates trend or non trending markets? This info can be really helpful. Thanks in advance.

maxpi · Aug 14, 2008

The bands on the current bar are dependent on where it closes. My thinking currently is to use the band value from the last complete bar and not to use the bollingers as signals but as filters to keep me out of bad trades from another system I'm working up. When looking at history or realtime I put in an offset of one bar for the bollingers so the previous bar's values are on the current bar to make the realtime experience match the historical experience.