SanMiguel
Hmmm… see what you mean. Perhaps on the 4h and up, tading the center line bollinger cross just using the price line might work out better.
R Carter
Well as usual I am in the rear half maybe some day I’ll be in the front.
As for the % I am a little slow I’ll have to think about that some I have my lot size and risk combined to 1% but today is Sunday and my brain don’t function on Sunday’s
John 
[B]JCGibson[/B]
John
I think that quote about sums it up. I enter a trade based on the rules that have been outlined in this thread (guidance of wise men) but exit sharpish if the trade doesn’t go my way (obedience of fools). 
R Carter
With all the MA’s added lately I am not sure what the rules are any more.
I have only been using this tread for a week now.
Monday through Wednesday I only watched the action to see how the price reacted to the rules.
Thursday and Friday I demo-ed Using only the spike and colour change which got me
123 pip on 5 trades by far the best I have ever done.
I know I will have losses and not always do this good but I feel some confidence in what I’m doing now.
So I hope we are not going to do like every other thread I have tried and completely change everything to not even resemble where we started.
John 
[B]JCGIBSON[/B]
John hehe… I’ve noticed that on other threads too. If it ain’t broke… don’t fix it. 
Nope, don’t think that will happen here. Just Bollingers and MA’s. [B]KISS[/B] (Keep it simple stupid).
R Carter
I’m really goad to here that.
I asked a question on one of my first posts and never got a answer maybe you can answer for me.
when you get a spike through the upper BB do you wait for the next candle to change color or can the spiking candle change color to take the trade.
BTW I do expect refinements I know forex is not static and what works today may not work tomorrow.
The more I learn about BB’s the more I am liking them.
John
JCGIBSON
I am with R Carter. [B][I]KISS[/I][/B]…this is just the way we like it here in this thread.
[B]JCGIBSON[/B]
Depends what your risk tollerance is?
A wick outside the bollinger and a subsequent change of colour candle and enter is the higher risk trade but will get you the most pips if the trade goes your way.
A wick outside the bollinger then a change of direction of ma and enter is the lower risk trade but less pips.
Its your call.
[B]JCGIBSON[/B]
Ah… re-read your post… I see what you mean.
Your saying if the candle that breaks the bollinger wicks and changes colour can you take the trade? I would not reccommend that. Thats just too high risk!
I always wait for the second candle to change colour. Even the second candle can often retrace to around the previous high wick.
Plus if price is running up the edge of the bollinger this type of trade is not reccommeded. The optimal use of this trade is when the bollinger is not steeply up or down.
R Carter
That is what I was afraid you was going to say.
I just got lucky Friday but in my defence I did feel uneasy taking the trades without any conformation of any kind.
I guess any good short entry Friday on cable was going to make pip’s
John:o
on my strategy, I was looking at gbp/usd 15m like I said it’s just an idea to play around with, maybe something that would work? Also as mentioned before the center bollinger line is nothing more than a simple moving average. 65ma is just there to maybe influence the decision making process not as a specific trigger.
I was thinking that when the price is ranging that you might kind of break even minus the spreads because if you are using center bollinger as entry and exit point then it would be pretty much horizontal. so entry price and exit price would be about the same. not exactly of course but somewhere close?
I’ve read elsewhere that a simple MA crossover strategy is a long term looser. That may be true if you follow it blindly without thinking like with an EA so something like this should be used with some input from the little gray cells, a little common sense and will improve with practice and experience. yes?
Don’t take advice from me, I’m one of the fools taking advice from the wise. not the other way round.
as for the direction of this thread. I know RCarter is a longtime pro and I get the impression that Cas is too? I would like to see this thread as a way to get good advice and guidance from the pros, A good place to ask questions of them and toss ideas around.
I am attaching the Excel spreadsheet from RCarter here
Forex spreadsheet.zip (18.8 KB)
bollinger bands…
default seems to be 20, I was wondering why? Anyone every tried other values?
any pros or cons to using other values?
yeah, I know, stick with what works
R Carter
On attached charts I strung a 65 in red across 1h and 4h on GU.
I can’t see any advantage in using the 65 except on the 4h.
What’s your take on it…?
[QUOTE=TalonD;135617]
as for the direction of this thread. I know RCarter is a longtime pro and I get the impression that Cas is too? I would like to see this thread as a way to get good advice and guidance from the pros, A good place to ask questions of them and toss ideas around.
TalonD
I was not criticising trying new ideas it was just no one has been taking about the outer bands lately and that is where my interest is right now as it was something I thought I was seeing and wanted to explore more.
I had been reading Tyman1’s thread and had too much trouble finding good patterns they all seem to come when I’m away from the computer and most are not more then 10 pips, and I can usually get 5 or 10 pips off the MA Cross. But usually loose 10 to 20 pips after gaining 5 or 10. So I am looking to improve on the wins and not loose as much.
As R Carter pointed out I took some high risk trades and got lucky this week mainly because of the way Cable was heading South so strongly.
Next week I am going to work of taking less risky trades and not worry about how many pip’s I get, just take what the trade offers.
John :o
I used BB 13 on some instruments but I found it wasn’t tracking price as close as BB 20 does.
It’s default.
I agree, outer bands and MA combination, I like the idea of seeing actual trades here and comments on why they were taken. Learn by example and learn by doing is a good way to go I think.
another brief thought on the bb… Right now I’m playing around with a 23bollinger rather than the 20 default… why? because it’s a prime number
one of my previous hobbies was trying to find a formula for generating prime numbers. Finally I realized that was an unobtainable holy grail of mathematics. yet some people continue to pursue it. like perpetual motion enthusiasts.
I think it’s 20 simply because that’s what John Bollinger used.
Various ones you can use 21 (21 active hours in forex, 21 working days in a month, various options), 25, 13. The fact is you have to see what fits best. Most traders use 20, therefore that’s what most big money institutions use and are looking at. Some people put a 2 standard deviation round the outside and then also ass 2.5 and 3 SDs in dotted lines to show price extremes. 13 reacts faster and might be better on the lower timeframes (5min, 15min). Either way you won’t find a big difference between what they are indicating, which overbought/oversold - it’s just an extra guide to validate MA signals in this case.
Stick a 20 period up on the GU daily chart, you’ll see a price extreme and a perfect candle signal last week indicating the reversal.
[B]CAS[/B]
I don’t remember why I suggested the 65ma to TALOND it was more than awhile ago now?
The only logical reason would have been because price was either at or nearing it. Outside of the obvious S/R levels its uncanny how price will reach a certain ma period and respect that level. The 20 BB has a center line 21 ma. On a big trending down or up its very common to see price move then retrace to the 21 ma, move then retrace to the 21 ma and so on and so forth.
yep, I see that reversal
I guess that has been a while, I remember you said that if price was way below 65 then it was oversold and way above then overbought. that price doesn’t stray far from the 65 for very long.
not a biggie , just something to consider
doing some backtesting with my red MAs I see that the ranging prices can give some pip losses. good entries are the key to avoiding some of those losses. So the red ma idea might be better suited to a longer time frame such as 1h and using BBs and candles to get good entries on shorter timeframes