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Bollinger Bands

Bollinger Bands frame price around a moving average so you can spot volatility compression, expansion, and stretched closes.

Indicator Guide
Volatility
Chart Overlay
bands

What it measures

Bollinger Bands frame price around a moving average so you can spot volatility compression, expansion, and stretched closes.

Bollinger Bands measure distance from a moving average in standard deviations. Wide bands signal expansion, tight bands signal compression, and band walks often mean the trend is still accepted.

Visual read

Bollinger Bands is shown as a chart overlay: candles remain the source of truth, while the line or zone frames bias, stretch, or invalidation.

138119100PriceBollinger 20 basis and bandsStandard-deviation envelope around a 20-period mean.Upper bandBasisLower bandTimeConcept sketch only. CandleOps missions still resolve from real historical candle data.

Formula / construction

Bollinger Band envelope
basis = SMA(close, n)upper = basis + k * stdev(close, n)lower = basis - k * stdev(close, n)

Bollinger Bands measure distance from a moving average in standard deviations. Wide bands signal expansion, tight bands signal compression, and band walks often mean the trend is still accepted.

How to read it in replay

Use Bollinger Bands to ask whether price is coiling, trending along a band, or snapping back toward the basis. In CandleOps they are excellent for mean-reversion filters and squeeze setups.

Bollinger Bands should tell you whether the mission is compressing, expanding, or stretching too far from a fair reference. Use it to size expectations, then let price structure choose the actual side.

What confirms the read

The strongest reads come when band behavior matches structure: compression before breakout, or extension into a clear resistance or support zone.

Confirmation should be visible before the trade starts. If the indicator says one thing and raw candles reject that story, skip the mission or record it as a conflicted setup.

Default parameters in CandleOps

Length: 20

Deviation: 2.0

Replay drill

  1. Open a block of 10 to 20 missions and allow Bollinger Bands to answer only one question: bias, timing, volatility, or participation.
  2. Before clicking Start Mission, write one sentence explaining what Bollinger Bands says and one sentence explaining what raw price must do to confirm it.
  3. Keep virtual risk stable for the whole drill so the review measures decision quality rather than random sizing.
  4. After each mission, grade the Bollinger Bands read as clean, early, late, conflicted, or irrelevant, then compare that grade with the payout and the revealed candles.

Failure modes and risk notes

Touching a band alone is not a signal. Strong trends can ride the outer band much longer than expected.

Because Bollinger Bands sits on the price chart, the common trap is treating a touch, cross, or flip as automatic permission. The safer rule is price first, indicator second, execution last.

The indicator should change the decision process, not decorate it. If it does not affect direction, invalidation, target placement, or the decision to skip, remove it from the active tactical handbook for that drill.

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Bollinger Bands | CandleOps Indicator Guide