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Home » Blog » 2020 » 05 » Charting signals based on McMillan's “modified Bollinger Bands”

McMillan Volatility Bands are an alternative approach to John Bollinger's "Bollinger Band" study and developed by world-renowned options trader and author Lawrence G. McMillan. Given his background in options trading, it was natural for Lawrence to approach any volatility-based study in the same manner options are priced – using Black-Scholes definition of volatility. This model of pricing assumes a financial asset's volatility should be measured in percentage change rather than absolute value change.

Overview

The McMillan Volatility Bands indicator for TradingView will plot the 3 and 4-standard deviation bands around a 20-day moving average. This is how Larry has always used this system. The user can, however, change the standard deviation value as well as the moving average length to their preferred setting. This indicator can theoretically be used on any asset and on any time frame.

McMillan Volatility Bands

Furthermore, the indicator will plot buy and sell signals based on a trading system used by McMillan in his newsletter publication The Daily Strategist. The system gives a signal when price closes outside the 4-sigma band and then closes back within the 3-sigma band. That 'signal bar' will be colored red or green for a sell or buy signal setup, respectively. Finally, an arrow will be plotted on the chart where the system would actually enter the trade. This is determined when price trades a little beyond the extreme of the 'signal bar'. The level by which price has to go beyond the 'signal bar' is an input parameter and can be adjusted by the user. We've chosen the default value of 0.34. This means, the indicator will not give a buy or sell entry until the price moves: 1/3 x beyond the extreme signal bar. This is to prevent getting whipsawed by some setups that never really move in your favor. We've found it successfully removes the less-valuable trade setups.

Three pricing options are available:
Monthly: $40 per month
Quarterly: $100 per quarter
Annual: $300 per year

You can subscribe at:
https://www.optionstrategist.com/products/mcmillan-volatility-bands-buysell-signals