Conflicting Signals - How does this work?

Ok so i'm currently in a trade on the Eur/Usd, i trade of 5 minute charts, i trade by eye and S&R rather than specific signals but i always keep my eye out for entries or reasons why it may struggle to continue to go my way when in a trade. On the 5 minute chart the price had clearly broken the Bollinger band, which in a lot of cases means the price may reverse, at least for the short term. So that's a signal i always take in to account as well as others, but what if they conflict on different time frames? 15m is also very important to me and the Bollinger was a million miles away from the price. I wasn't sure which one i should be listening to, if they both mean something then how can they be the total opposite? Can someone please shed some light on this please?

Hope you're all well, you swines :clap:

Doomberg said:

Ok so i'm currently in a trade on the Eur/Usd, i trade of 5 minute charts, i trade by eye and S&R rather than specific signals but i always keep my eye out for entries or reasons why it may struggle to continue to go my way when in a trade. On the 5 minute chart the price had clearly broken the Bollinger band, which in a lot of cases means the price may reverse, at least for the short term. So that's a signal i always take in to account as well as others, but what if they conflict on different time frames? 15m is also very important to me and the Bollinger was a million miles away from the price. I wasn't sure which one i should be listening to, if they both mean something then how can they be the total opposite? Can someone please shed some light on this please?

Hope you're all well, you swines :clap:

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Oh Doomberg!

Bollinger bands! On top of that you're worried because they don't match up on different time frames!



1. The only Bollinger you have should be in your cellar.

2. One chart is all you need. Look at one, trade from one.

Doomberg said:

...if they both mean something then how can they be the total opposite? Can someone please shed some light on this please?

Hope you're all well, you swines :clap:

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I can indeed shed some light.

Automatically drawn squiggly lines on your chart are a heap of utter ballocks.

It makes as much sense to use them for trading as it does to eat a phaal to alleviate a bad case of ring-sting.

But i can't see how they are that bad? A very high % of the time when it passes through the bollinger, the price will pass back through as it doesn't really like to stay past them for long. I know that this is not the do all and end all, but to me i've noticed this a lot, and it's something a lot of people have mentioned to me as well

Does the price move through the Bollinger or does the Bollinger move through the price?

Doomberg said:

But i can't see how they are that bad? A very high % of the time when it passes through the bollinger, the price will pass back through as it doesn't really like to stay past them for long. I know that this is not the do all and end all, but to me i've noticed this a lot, and it's something a lot of people have mentioned to me as well

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Then just trade them on the time frame you happen to be watching.

brewski1984 said:

Does the price move through the Bollinger or does the Bollinger move through the price?

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I have no idea, that's why i asked you guys, i'm looking for a Bollinger Mogul

But this EUR/USD trade....

Just closed shorted for the short term btw

The Leopard said:

Then just trade them on the time frame you happen to be watching.

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Sure, but i am confused as i watch 15m and 5m, am i being stupid lol? :whistling

Doomberg said:

Sure, but i am confused as i watch 15m and 5m, am i being stupid lol? :whistling

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It's simple. Different charts show different things. Most indicators are just derivatives of price.

Take an MA for example. Plot it on a 5 minute and the same on a 15 minute. They are different, because the average of the last X 5 minute periods and the average of the last X 15 minute periods are different.

That being the case, why are you worried about it?

The only constant thing, across all charts tick, time or volume, and on the ladder, is price. Might be something to ponder.

If I had noticed, as you've said you have, that price reverses shortly after it passes through the bollinger band, I would might look for where price has passed through the bollinger band on the 15m, and then when the 5m also passes through its bollinger band, indicating the market is stretched in both timeframes, then I might look at entering. If they don't line up then there is no entry. That would be how I might approach the two timeframes, though I'd put a caveat on it that I have not the slightest interest in bollinger bands.

Doomberg said:

Sure, but i am confused as i watch 15m and 5m, am i being stupid lol? :whistling

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Hi Doomberg...
I mostly agree with what The Leopard is telling you...

1)Indicators are always derivates of price itself, so they lag it all most of the times (I even think that candle formations are a lagging thing too, as they show what has already happened.... but that's another story)
Despite of this, if anyone can trade better with the help of indicators it is all good imho... you know, there are different ways to skin a cat...

2)Regarding to different TF's, if you prioritize 5 min tf, I would also recommend you to look only to that "intraday" tf and its indicators there if you like... I mean, it is ok to check on different tf's, and usually the higher ones carry more importance, as they usually allow more people to see their patterns, S/R, Candlesticks, etc, because they are much slower.... but if you look at "close ones" as 15 min, even 30 min,they can mess with your head a lot....

For me in particular, the Daily tf is king... even when I trade off 1H charts and even sometimes off 5 min tf....

but with all this said, you can perfectly go against the daily tf or the 4H tf "trend" and get a nice 5 min tf "scalp"....

If I had to give you a concrete advice this would be to quickly check the daily tf at the end of the day to see if something jumps right of your eyes to get some "clear" bias only for the next session like a pin bar, the candle just bounced that day from a clear daily S/R or Fibo, or whatever indy you like or trust, and if it does, try to scalp and enter on your system signals, only in that direction, as the trades usually (there are no 100% guarantees in trading) will get easier and quicker in that direction...
the same applies for 4H tf or even the 1H tf, that would be the smaller tf I would check to get a bias to help me to scalp the 5 min without getting confused..... but it is quite important imho only select one of these and go always with it as 4H and 1H are close to each other as well....

bottom line would be like this:
D1 (king, main Bias) -------> H4/H1 (mid timeframe, waiting to get indication that matches with the Daily if it has provided a Bias, if not, it is good to provide bias from itself) -------> crack it on the 5 min tf (with your preferred system, indicators, naked charts... whatever you like)

Hope it helps you a little

Doomberg said:

But i can't see how they are that bad? A very high % of the time when it passes through the bollinger, the price will pass back through as it doesn't really like to stay past them for long. I know that this is not the do all and end all, but to me i've noticed this a lot, and it's something a lot of people have mentioned to me as well

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The reason for Bollinger Band reversals is because because they are based on statistics. In a way, they are the same as a bell chart, they tend to come back to the average. But what is the average doing and, to get more complicated, what is the price doing to the average?

You say that a high percentage of the time they pass back inside the line. How high a percentage? My view is not all that often. More often the price goes into a trend, so there is this ambiguity about what price is going to do.

My advice is to keep trying them, though, because everyone has to convince himself. Others won't do it. You'll treat them with suspicion after a while and then you'll be satisfied with your own conclusions

Doomberg said:

Ok so i'm currently in a trade on the Eur/Usd, i trade of 5 minute charts, i trade by eye and S&R rather than specific signals but i always keep my eye out for entries or reasons why it may struggle to continue to go my way when in a trade. On the 5 minute chart the price had clearly broken the Bollinger band, which in a lot of cases means the price may reverse, at least for the short term. So that's a signal i always take in to account as well as others, but what if they conflict on different time frames? 15m is also very important to me and the Bollinger was a million miles away from the price. I wasn't sure which one i should be listening to, if they both mean something then how can they be the total opposite? Can someone please shed some light on this please?

Hope you're all well, you swines :clap:

Click to expand...

hey dude

I like channel indicators but hate the BB

(try the keltner, donchian,kaufman adaptive or even strap a simple pair of % +/- lines either side of a standard ma....they are all interesting approaches .........But I hate the BB - just me)

and 15mTF / 5TFm are tooo close together for me to see any use or benefit

4X and pref 6X+ for me is needed to achieve the next level market view

i'll even go to 12X (5m vs 1hr) at times

whatever gets you though the night...just have them both pointing in the same direction and go for it ....

N

Doom, open 2 accounts, problem solved.

if you are not yet profitable try only trading with the trend and the momentum and then compare your results. it sounds obvious but it's amazing how much the human brain loves reversals.

it's much more forgiving. Even if you entry is bad often price will just wash over you and take you into profit. trading reversals is very hard imo, I cant do it so stopped trying.

it's not about what you win it's about what you don't lose.

i feckin despair

the hare said:

i feckin despair

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You mean you don't use Bollinger Bands on multiple timeframes, only taking a trade when you get the same signal on both?

I must say I find that very hard to believe!

Unless you're a stochatics man? They work well too .

The Leopard said:

You mean you don't use Bollinger Bands on multiple timeframes, only taking a trade when you get the same signal on both?

I must say I find that very hard to believe!

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Honestly, how much of a **** would you need to be to name an indicator that plots a standard deviation about an average after yourself ?

Having said that, the great baghdady, "world champion indicator re-namer of 2012" did it so I guess thats something of a rhetorical question

I'm losing the will to live