Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Bollinger Bands strategies in Forex trading

Bollinger Bands is one indicator which many traders tend to have on their charts even if they are actually analyzing other technical analysis indicators and not really Bollinger bands.
Let's see how to use this common indicator to get us more winning trades, mainly with a combination of other technical indicators like stochastic oscillator.

Bollinger bands indicate the volatility of market and hence we should always look for the change in volatility. The change always indicates some major move and we need to catch that up early. So what we need to look for is the following:

eToro1) Bands are widening: Volatility is increasing and further move can be anticipated in the current direction. So we need to ensure that we are correct about the current direction.

2) Bands are tightening: Volatility is decreasing. It can be like silence before the storm and a major breakout may be on the way. But breakout in which direction?

1a) Widening Bollinger Bands (Bullish):

This pattern generally would take place after some band tightening with low volatility shorter candles with range movement)

- The bands are widening with the upper band moving sharply upside and the lower and moving sharply downwards.

- The price action is moving upwards.

- The recent candle sticks are longer than the previous candlesticks

Action:

- Check if RSI (Relative Strength Index) is in the range of 30 to 50 and rising.

- You may also check if ADX is rising towards 25/beyond 25 and +DI crossing -DI.

- Check if Slow Stochastic is crossing the signal line upwards (bullish).

- If all above are taking place then we can expect a further upward move of the price. It will be safer and hence better to wait for 2 or 3 more candles to confirm the trend and then take a buy position. It also happens that before a further upward move there may be some downward correction and the wait for 2/3 candles may help in increasing the gains.

If ADX does not move above 25 then the upward move may be limited and hence the profit taking will be limited

1a) Widening Bollinger Bands (Bearish):

This pattern generally would take place after some band tightening with low volatility shorter candles with range movement)

- The bands are widening with the upper band moving sharply upside and the lower and moving sharply downwards.

- The price action is moving downwards.

- The recent candle sticks are longer than the previous candlesticks.

Action:

- Check if RSI (Relative Strength Index) is in the range of 55 to 75 and falling.

- You may also check if ADX (Average directional Index)is rising towards 25/beyond 25 and -DI crossing +DI.

- Check if Slow Stochastic is crossing the signal line downwards.

- If all above are taking place then we can expect a further downward move of the price. It will be safer and hence better to wait for 2 or 3 more candles to confirm the trend and then take a sell position. It also happens that before a further downward move there may be some upward correction and the wait for 2/3 candles may help in increasing the gains.

If ADX does not move above 25 then the downward move may be limited and hence the profit taking will be limited.

2a) Tightening Bollinger bands (bullish move):

Easily Integrated API's for bulk SMS sendingThe pattern happens with a prolonged sideways move with less volatility (short candlesticks)

- Check if there are minimum 2 continuous bullish candlesticks (green) which are longer than previous 2 to 3 candlesticks.

- Check if RSI (Relative Strength Index) is in the range of 30 to 50 and rising.

- You may also check if ADX is rising towards 25/beyond 25 and +DI crossing -DI.

- Check if Slow Stochastic is crossing the signal line upwards.

- If all above are taking place then we can expect an upward breakout. It will be safer and hence better to wait for 2 or 3 more candles for confirmation before taking a buy position with a red candle.

If ADX does not move above 25 then the upward move may be limited and hence the profit taking will be limited

2b) Tightening Bollinger bands (bearish move):

The pattern happens with a prolonged sideways move with less volatility (short candlesticks)

- Check if there are minimum 2 continuous bearish candlesticks (red) which are longer than previous 2 to 3 candlesticks.

- Check if RSI (Relative Strength Index) is in the range of 40 to 60 and falling.

- You may also check if ADX is rising towards 25/beyond 25 and -DI crossing +DI.

- Check if Slow Stochastic is crossing the signal line downwards.

- If all above are taking place then we can expect a downward breakout. It will be safer and hence better to wait for 2 or 3 more candles for confirmation before taking a sell position with a red candle.

If ADX does not move above 25 then the upward move may be limited and hence the profit taking will be limited.

3a) Continuation of uptrend after correction

During an ongoing uptrend the price may reverse to the middle band or even the lower band.

- Check if RSI (Relative Strength Index) is in the range of 30 to 50 and rising.

- You may also check if ADX is above 25 and +DI over -DI.

- Check if Slow Stochastic is over the signal (bullish configuration).

- With all above we can expect a continuation of the uptrend. It will be safer and hence better to wait for 2 or 3 more candles to confirm that the recent move was just a correction and then take a buy position

3b) Continuation of downtrend after correction

During an ongoing downtrend the price may reverse to the middle band or even the upper band.

- Check if RSI (Relative Strength Index) is in the range of 55 to 75 and falling.

- You may also check if ADX is above 25 and -DI above +DI.

- Check if Slow Stochastic is below the signal (bearish configuration).

- With all above we can expect a continuation of the downtrend. It will be safer and hence better to wait for 2 or 3 more candles to confirm that the recent move was just a correction and then take a sell position.

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