Bollinger Band Squeeze look-back period

Discussion in 'Technical Analysis' started by stevenpaul, Nov 8, 2009.

  1. In his Method I system, a volatility breakout strategy, Bollinger say to enter a trade when the bands expand from their tightest squeeze, i.e., lowest Bollinger Band bandwidth, in six months. Unfortunately, he never seems to say what kind of chart he's using. Should we enter following the tightest squeeze in 6 months based on a daily chart (which would be about 132 periods) or a weekly chart (about 24 periods)? I never trade using daily or weekly charts. I'd like to use the squeeze strategy, but can't figure out how many periods to be looking back. I wish Bollinger would state the look-back time in periods rather than months. Do you have any idea about how many periods to be looking back for assessing bandwidth?
     
  2. Just go back 132 periods, no matter time frame. 24 bars (weeks) is too small a sample to try and compare relative band width to. Honestly, the more data you can run it against, the better. Don't be afraid to go back even further.
     
  3. HONEST QUESTION............was John bollinger ever a successful trader??? I cannot find any verifiable results to support his claims in his books>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>thanks in advance
     
  4. ammo

    ammo

    the bollinger family is/was very wealthy,big cahunas on the cbot old days...now i dunno
     
  5. If he's wealthy, he didn't do it with bolllinger bands.:D
     
  6. jjf

    jjf

    BBands are very much like yachts.

    If you want a small fortune, just start out with a large one.