THE BOLLINGER BANDIT TRADING STRATEGY
Standard deviation is a number that indicates how much on average each of the
values in the distribution deviates from the mean (or center) of the distribution.
Bollinger Bands, created by John Bollinger in the 1960s, is an indicator that uses
this statistical measure to determine support and resistance levels. This indica-
tor consists of three lines and is very simple to derive; the middle line is a sim-
ple moving average of the underlying price data and the two outside bands are
equal to the moving average plus or minus one standard deviation. Based on
theory, two standard deviations equates to a 95 percent confidence level. In
other words, 95 percent of the time the values used in our sampling fell within
two standard deviations of the average. Initially, Bollinger Bands were used to
determine the boundaries of market movements. If a market moved to the
upper band or lower band, then there was a good chance that the market would
move back to its average. We have carried out numerous tests on this hypothe-
sis and seemed to always come back with failure. Instead of using the upper
band as a resistance point, we discovered, as others have, that it worked much
better as a breakout indicator. The same goes for the lower band. The Bollinger
Bandit uses one standard deviation above the 50-day moving average as a poten-
tial long entry and one standard deviation below the 50-day moving average as
a potential short entry. This system is a first cousin of King Keltner. They are
similar in that they are longer-term channel breakout systems. However, this is
where the similarities end. Instead of simply liquidating a position when the
market moved back to the moving average, we concocted a little twist to this exit
technique. From observing the trades on the King Keltner, we discovered that
we gave back a good portion of the larger profits waiting to exit the market at
the moving average. So, for the Bollinger Bandit, we incorporated a more
aggressive trailing stop mechanism. When a position is initiated, the protec-
tive stop is set at the 50-day moving average. Every day that we are in a position,
we decrement the number of days for our moving average calculation by one.
The longer that we are in a trade, the easier it is to exit the market with a profit.
We keep decrementing the number of days in our moving average calculation
until we reach ten. From that point on, we do not decrement. There is one
more element to our exit technique: the moving average must be below the
upper band if we are long and above the lower band if we are short. We added
this element to prevent the system from going back into the same trade that we
just liquidated. If we hadn’t used this additional condition and we were long and
the moving average was above the upper band, the long entry criteria would still
be set up and a long trade would be initiated.
Previously, we stated that the upper band and lower band were potential
buy/sell entries. Potential is the key word. One more test must be passed
before we initiate a position; the close of today must be greater than the close
of 30 days ago for a long position and the close of today must be less than the close of 30 days ago for a short position. This additional requirement is a trend
filter. We only want to go long in an uptrend and short in a downtrend.
The Bollinger Bandit requires four tools: (1) Bollinger Bands, (2) a mov-
ing average of closing prices, (3) a rate of change calculation, and (4) a counter.
This system is longer term in nature, so we will use 50 days in our calculations.
Bollinger Bandit Pseudocode
LiqDay is initially set to 50
upBand = Average(Close,50) + StdDev(Close,50) *1.25
dnBand = Average(Close,50) - StdDev(Close,50) *1.25
rocCalc = Close of today - Close of thirty days ago
Set liqLength to 50
If rocCalc is positive, a long position will be initiated when
today's market action >= upBand
If rocCalc is negative, a short position will be initiated when
today's market action <= dnBand
liqPoint = Average(Close, 50)
If liqPoint is above the upBand, we will liquidate a long position if
today's market action <= liqPoint
If liqPoint is below the dnBand, we will liquidate a short position
if today's market action >= liqPoint
If we are not stopped out today, then liqLength = liqLength - 1
If we are stopped out today, then reset liqLength to fifty
Bollinger Bandit Program
{Bollinger Bandit by George Pruitt—program uses Bollinger Bands and Rate of
change to determine entry points. A trailing stop that is proportional with
the amount of time a trade is on is used as the exit technique.}
Inputs: bollingerLengths(50),liqLength(50),rocCalcLength(30);
Vars: upBand(0),dnBand(0),liqDays(50),rocCalc(0);
upBand = BollingerBand(Close,bollingerLengths,1.25);
dnBand = BollingerBand(Close,bollingerLengths,-1.25);
rocCalc = Close - Close[rocCalcLength-1]; {remember to subtract 1}
if(MarketPosition <> 1 and rocCalc > 0) then Buy("BanditBuy")tomorrow upBand
stop;
if(MarketPosition <>-1 and rocCalc < 0) then SellShort("BanditSell") tomorrow
dnBand stop;
if(MarketPosition = 0) then liqDays = liqLength;
if(MarketPosition <> 0) then
begin
liqDays = liqDays - 1;
liqDays = MaxList(liqDays,10);end;
if(MarketPosition = 1 and Average(Close,liqDays) < upBand) then
Sell("Long Liq") tomorrow Average(Close,liqDays) stop;
if(MarketPosition = -1 and Average(Close,liqDays) > dnBand) then
BuyToCover("Short Liq") tomorrow Average(Close,liqDays) stop;
The Bollinger Bandit program demonstrates how to:
• Invoke the Bollinger Band function. This function call is less than intu-
itive and must be passed three parameters: (1) price series, (2) number
of elements in the sample used in the calculation for the standard devi-
ation, and (3) number of deviations above/below moving average. You
must use a negative sign in the last parameter to get the band to fall
under the moving average.
• Invoke the MaxList function. This function returns the largest value in
a list.
• Do a simple rate of change calculation.
• Create and manage a counter variable, liqLength.
Bollinger Bandit trading performance is summarized in Table 6.2.
Trading Strategies That Work 117
Table 6.2
Bollinger Bandit Performance
System Name: Bollinger Bandit Commission/Slippage = $75
Tested 1982 – 3/19/2002
Total Net Max. # of Max. Cons.
Markets Profit DrawDown Trades % Wins Losers
British Pound $ 38,750.00 $ (43,612.50) 194 33.51% 20
Crude Oil $ 47,242.50 $ (17,522.50) 170 41.76% 8
Corn $ (5,112.50) $ (12,937.50) 213 29.58% 13
Copper $ 2,300.00 $ (9,587.50) 138 36.23% 12
Cotton $ 26,695.00 $ (12,437.50) 220 32.73% 8
Deutsch Mark $ 51,075.00 $ (13,812.50) 186 41.40% 6
Euro Currency $ 8,737.50 $ (9,012.50) 29 44.83% 7
Euro Dollar $ 31,927.50 $ (6,622.50) 196 35.71% 19
Heating Oil $ 16,883.14 $ (18,378.89) 201 38.81% 10
Japanese Yen $ 121,937.50 $ (21,462.50) 180 37.22% 8
Live Cattle $ (16,867.50) $ (25,411.50) 224 26.79% 18
Natural Gas $ 85,897.50 $ (21,737.50) 113 44.25% 6
Soybeans $ (15,925.00) $ (40,862.50) 215 31.16% 15
Swiss Franc $ 76,312.50 $ (9,987.50) 188 40.96% 5
Treasury Note $ 39,625.00 $ (11,487.50) 202 38.12% 9
U.S. Bonds $ 48,381.25 $ (15,343.75) 204 36.27% 6
Wheat $ (20,037.50) $ (21,931.25) 219 29.68% 11
Total $ 537,821.89 3092 Overall trading performance was positive. You can see the similarities between
the Bollinger and Keltner-based systems. The same markets that made good
money in one system made good money in the other. These systems would not
work well together due to their high level of correlation. This system did
exceptionally well in the Japanese Yen and Natural Gas. Through further
investigation, we discovered that our trailing stop mechanism only marginally
increased profit and decreased draw down. Nonetheless, the concept probably
adds a higher comfort level when a trade is initiated. We know that our risk
should diminish the farther we get into a trade. This is due to the fact that a
shorter-term moving average follows closer to the actual market than a longer-
term average.
