John Bollinger
Encyclopedia
John A. Bollinger is an American
author
, financial analyst
, contributor to the field of technical analysis
and the developer of Bollinger Bands
. His book Bollinger on Bollinger Bands, John Bollinger, McGraw Hill, 2002, ISBN 978-0-07-137368-5, has been translated into eight languages.Chinese (simplified and traditional), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean and Spanish. He has published The ’’Capital Growth Letter’’ which provides technical analysis of the financial markets since 1987.
Bollinger Bands
are intervals drawn on a price chart that define high and low on a relative basis. Bollinger started developing Bollinger Bands in the early 1980s. He was trading options at the time and much of his analytics involved volatility. At the time fixed width trading bands were in use. Mr. Bollinger's contribution was to use volatility standard deviation
to make trading bands adaptive.
When they were introduced to the public on Financial News Network
they didn't have a name. His interviewer pointed to the chart and said "What are those?" and Bollinger said "Let's call them Bollinger Bands." That was how they got their name.
At the 2004 AIMR Conference, in his presentation titled Combining Technical and Fundamental Analysis, he took his concept one step further. Because the financial analysis
community sub-categorizes itself in ever finer specialty groups, his updated definition of Rational Analysis was stated as “the union of the sets of technical, fundamental, quantitative and behavioral analysis”.
The analogy Bollinger uses for Rational Analysis is having multiple tool kits each with different tools. To get the job done the rational approach is to take the tool that does the job best, regardless of which tool kit it comes from. The same is true for financial analysis
. Depending on the analytical scenario, sometimes technical analysis
tools provide the best insights. Sometimes fundamental analysis
, behavioral analysis or quantitative analysis; and most often a combination of all four is the most rigorous and productive.
in 1977, Bollinger became involved in the seminal stages of computer driven technical analysis
. Computer
technology allowed Bollinger to develop Group Power, an industry group ranking system that shows developing trends in industry groups and sectors. Over the years the service evolved, the underlying structure becoming a proprietary equal-weighted industry group structure and delivery via the Internet
allowed ever more complex analytics.
In 1996 Bollinger recognized the potential of the Internet for financial analysis and began the programming for www.EquityTrader.com. The service utilized a 52 rule fuzzy logic
model to provide analytics of the US equities market and was one of earliest charting and technical analysis
websites.
where he was the Chief Market Analyst for seven years, 1984–1990, a role in which he had primary responsibility for the technical analysis
content presented on air.
After FNN was purchased by NBC
Bollinger helped with the transition to CNBC
and continued to provide commentary on CNBC
on a regular basis. He founded he own firm, Bollinger Capital Management, an investment management and research firm. Bollinger is both a CFA Chartered Financial Analyst
and CMT Chartered Market Technician
and was the first financial analyst to earn both designations. Bollinger is the recipient of the Technical Securities Analysts Association of San Francisco Lifetime Award for Outstanding Achievement in Technical Analysis and the 2005 Market Technicians Association Annual Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Field of Technical Analysis. He is also the founding president of Market Analysts of Southern California. Bollinger is the president and founder of Bollinger Capital Management, an investment management company that provides technically-driven money management services and develops proprietary research for institutions and individuals.
for ten years and on the board of IFTA International Federation of Technical Analysts for four years. He is currently a member of the board of the Market Technicians Association Education Foundation.
CFA Society Los Angeles http://www.cfala.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=1
Technical Securities Analysts Association http://www.tsaasf.org/about-tsaasf
Market Technicians Association http://www.mta.org
MetaStock Monitor, March 2009, Bollinger Band Basics
SFO Magazine, February 2003, Bollinger Bands and Volume Oscillator Pair Up For Range Trading Stock Strategy
Active Trader, March 2002, Volume Indicators Revisited
Technical Analysis of Stocks & Commodities, February 1992, Using Bollinger Bands
Technical Analysis of Stocks & Commodities, March 1993, Put Volume Indicators
CFA Magazine, November 2005, John Bollinger Profile, Nancy Opiela
SFO Magazine, February 2003, Bollinger Bands and Volume Oscillator Pair Up For Range Trading Stock Strategy, John Bollinger
Active Trader, February 2001, John Bollinger: Focus on the Markets, Interview with John Bollinger
Active Trader, April 2003, Relatively Speaking, Interview with John Bollinger
The Technical Analyst, January 2009, Techniques for Recognizing Market Bottoms
SFO Magazine, August 2008, Tips from the Pros, Matt Blackman
Technical Analysis of Stocks & Commodities, Interview: John Bollinger of Bollinger Bands Fame, by Jayanthi Gopalakrishnan
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
, financial analyst
Financial analyst
A financial analyst, securities analyst, research analyst, equity analyst, or investment analyst is a person who performs financial analysis for external or internal clients as a core part of the job.-Job:...
, contributor to the field of technical analysis
Technical analysis
In finance, technical analysis is security analysis discipline for forecasting the direction of prices through the study of past market data, primarily price and volume. Behavioral economics and quantitative analysis incorporate technical analysis, which being an aspect of active management stands...
and the developer of Bollinger Bands
Bollinger bands
Bollinger Bands and the related indicators %b and BandWidth are technical analysis tools invented by John Bollinger in the 1980s. Having evolved from the concept of trading bands, Bollinger Bands can be used to measure the highness or lowness of the price relative to previous trades.Bollinger Bands...
. His book Bollinger on Bollinger Bands, John Bollinger, McGraw Hill, 2002, ISBN 978-0-07-137368-5, has been translated into eight languages.Chinese (simplified and traditional), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean and Spanish. He has published The ’’Capital Growth Letter’’ which provides technical analysis of the financial markets since 1987.
Bollinger Bands
Bollinger Bands
Bollinger bands
Bollinger Bands and the related indicators %b and BandWidth are technical analysis tools invented by John Bollinger in the 1980s. Having evolved from the concept of trading bands, Bollinger Bands can be used to measure the highness or lowness of the price relative to previous trades.Bollinger Bands...
are intervals drawn on a price chart that define high and low on a relative basis. Bollinger started developing Bollinger Bands in the early 1980s. He was trading options at the time and much of his analytics involved volatility. At the time fixed width trading bands were in use. Mr. Bollinger's contribution was to use volatility standard deviation
Standard deviation
Standard deviation is a widely used measure of variability or diversity used in statistics and probability theory. It shows how much variation or "dispersion" there is from the average...
to make trading bands adaptive.
When they were introduced to the public on Financial News Network
Financial News Network
The Financial News Network was a television network that operated throughout the United States during the 1980s.-Founding:Financial News Network was founded in 1981 by two men: Rodney Buchser, who had been general manager of KWHY, Channel 22 in Los Angeles and Glenn Taylor. The concept originated...
they didn't have a name. His interviewer pointed to the chart and said "What are those?" and Bollinger said "Let's call them Bollinger Bands." That was how they got their name.
Rational Analysis
“John Bollinger, CFA, has always concentrated on the overlap between technical and fundamental analysis, rather than focus on the differences. To bridge the gap between fundamental and technical analysis, Bollinger advocates an approach he calls ‘Rational Analysis’”. Bollinger first coined the term “Rational Analysis” in the late 1980s. He then defined it as the “juncture of the overlap between technical and fundamental analysis” and created a visual representation.At the 2004 AIMR Conference, in his presentation titled Combining Technical and Fundamental Analysis, he took his concept one step further. Because the financial analysis
Financial analysis
Financial analysis refers to an assessment of the viability, stability and profitability of a business, sub-business or project....
community sub-categorizes itself in ever finer specialty groups, his updated definition of Rational Analysis was stated as “the union of the sets of technical, fundamental, quantitative and behavioral analysis”.
The analogy Bollinger uses for Rational Analysis is having multiple tool kits each with different tools. To get the job done the rational approach is to take the tool that does the job best, regardless of which tool kit it comes from. The same is true for financial analysis
Financial analysis
Financial analysis refers to an assessment of the viability, stability and profitability of a business, sub-business or project....
. Depending on the analytical scenario, sometimes technical analysis
Technical analysis
In finance, technical analysis is security analysis discipline for forecasting the direction of prices through the study of past market data, primarily price and volume. Behavioral economics and quantitative analysis incorporate technical analysis, which being an aspect of active management stands...
tools provide the best insights. Sometimes fundamental analysis
Fundamental analysis
Fundamental analysis of a business involves analyzing its financial statements and health, its management and competitive advantages, and its competitors and markets. When applied to futures and forex, it focuses on the overall state of the economy, interest rates, production, earnings, and...
, behavioral analysis or quantitative analysis; and most often a combination of all four is the most rigorous and productive.
Computerized Technical Analysis
After purchasing his first microcomputerMicrocomputer
A microcomputer is a computer with a microprocessor as its central processing unit. They are physically small compared to mainframe and minicomputers...
in 1977, Bollinger became involved in the seminal stages of computer driven technical analysis
Technical analysis
In finance, technical analysis is security analysis discipline for forecasting the direction of prices through the study of past market data, primarily price and volume. Behavioral economics and quantitative analysis incorporate technical analysis, which being an aspect of active management stands...
. Computer
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
technology allowed Bollinger to develop Group Power, an industry group ranking system that shows developing trends in industry groups and sectors. Over the years the service evolved, the underlying structure becoming a proprietary equal-weighted industry group structure and delivery via the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
allowed ever more complex analytics.
In 1996 Bollinger recognized the potential of the Internet for financial analysis and began the programming for www.EquityTrader.com. The service utilized a 52 rule fuzzy logic
Fuzzy logic
Fuzzy logic is a form of many-valued logic; it deals with reasoning that is approximate rather than fixed and exact. In contrast with traditional logic theory, where binary sets have two-valued logic: true or false, fuzzy logic variables may have a truth value that ranges in degree between 0 and 1...
model to provide analytics of the US equities market and was one of earliest charting and technical analysis
Technical analysis
In finance, technical analysis is security analysis discipline for forecasting the direction of prices through the study of past market data, primarily price and volume. Behavioral economics and quantitative analysis incorporate technical analysis, which being an aspect of active management stands...
websites.
Professional Life
After becoming an independent trader in 1980 he joined the Financial News NetworkFinancial News Network
The Financial News Network was a television network that operated throughout the United States during the 1980s.-Founding:Financial News Network was founded in 1981 by two men: Rodney Buchser, who had been general manager of KWHY, Channel 22 in Los Angeles and Glenn Taylor. The concept originated...
where he was the Chief Market Analyst for seven years, 1984–1990, a role in which he had primary responsibility for the technical analysis
Technical analysis
In finance, technical analysis is security analysis discipline for forecasting the direction of prices through the study of past market data, primarily price and volume. Behavioral economics and quantitative analysis incorporate technical analysis, which being an aspect of active management stands...
content presented on air.
After FNN was purchased by NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
Bollinger helped with the transition to CNBC
CNBC
CNBC is a satellite and cable television business news channel in the U.S., owned and operated by NBCUniversal. The network and its international spinoffs cover business headlines and provide live coverage of financial markets. The combined reach of CNBC and its siblings is 390 million viewers...
and continued to provide commentary on CNBC
CNBC
CNBC is a satellite and cable television business news channel in the U.S., owned and operated by NBCUniversal. The network and its international spinoffs cover business headlines and provide live coverage of financial markets. The combined reach of CNBC and its siblings is 390 million viewers...
on a regular basis. He founded he own firm, Bollinger Capital Management, an investment management and research firm. Bollinger is both a CFA Chartered Financial Analyst
Chartered Financial Analyst
The Chartered Financial Analyst Program is a graduate level self-study program offered by the CFA Institute to investment and financial professionals...
and CMT Chartered Market Technician
Chartered Market Technician
Chartered Market Technician is a professional designation that confirms proficiency in technical analysis of the financial markets. To hold the designation, membership in the Market Technicians Association is required....
and was the first financial analyst to earn both designations. Bollinger is the recipient of the Technical Securities Analysts Association of San Francisco Lifetime Award for Outstanding Achievement in Technical Analysis and the 2005 Market Technicians Association Annual Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Field of Technical Analysis. He is also the founding president of Market Analysts of Southern California. Bollinger is the president and founder of Bollinger Capital Management, an investment management company that provides technically-driven money management services and develops proprietary research for institutions and individuals.
Board Memberships
Bollinger served on the board of the MTA Market Technicians AssociationMarket Technicians Association
The Market Technicians Association is a non-profit, global, professional organization of Technical Analysts based out of New York City. The MTA seeks to educate the financial community and public, increase the use of Technical Analysis, and maintain standards of expertise and ethics among...
for ten years and on the board of IFTA International Federation of Technical Analysts for four years. He is currently a member of the board of the Market Technicians Association Education Foundation.
Member of
CFA Institute http://www.cfainstitute.org/CFA Society Los Angeles http://www.cfala.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=1
Technical Securities Analysts Association http://www.tsaasf.org/about-tsaasf
Market Technicians Association http://www.mta.org
Articles and Books by John Bollinger
Les bandes de bollinger, John Bollinger. Valor Editions. ISBN : 9-9093566-34-5MetaStock Monitor, March 2009, Bollinger Band Basics
SFO Magazine, February 2003, Bollinger Bands and Volume Oscillator Pair Up For Range Trading Stock Strategy
Active Trader, March 2002, Volume Indicators Revisited
Technical Analysis of Stocks & Commodities, February 1992, Using Bollinger Bands
Technical Analysis of Stocks & Commodities, March 1993, Put Volume Indicators
Articles about John Bollinger and his work
Los Angeles Times, December 7, 2008, John Bollinger: Stock Scholar, Walter HamiltonCFA Magazine, November 2005, John Bollinger Profile, Nancy Opiela
SFO Magazine, February 2003, Bollinger Bands and Volume Oscillator Pair Up For Range Trading Stock Strategy, John Bollinger
Active Trader, February 2001, John Bollinger: Focus on the Markets, Interview with John Bollinger
Active Trader, April 2003, Relatively Speaking, Interview with John Bollinger
The Technical Analyst, January 2009, Techniques for Recognizing Market Bottoms
SFO Magazine, August 2008, Tips from the Pros, Matt Blackman
Technical Analysis of Stocks & Commodities, Interview: John Bollinger of Bollinger Bands Fame, by Jayanthi Gopalakrishnan
Articles that reference John Bollinger and his work
- Technical Analysis from A to Z, Irwin, 1995, Steve Achelis ISBN 978-0071363488
- Los Angeles Times, December 7, 2008, John Bollinger: Stock Scholar, Walter Hamilton http://articles.latimes.com/2008/dec/07/business/fi-himi7
- Investopedia.com, The Basics of Bollinger Bands http://www.investopedia.com/articles/technical/102201.asp
- Trade10.com, Bollinger Bands http://trade10.com/Bollinger.html
- Forbes.com, Bollinger Band Trading, John Devcic, 5/11/07 http://www.forbes.com/2007/05/11/bollinger-intel-yahoo-pf-education-in_jd_0511chartroom_inl.html
- SFO Magazine, November 2005, Channel Your Focus: The Moving Average Band, Gerald Appel http://www.sfomag.com/article.aspx?ID=739
- eSignal Learning, Jan 16, 2009 Combining Technical Indicators: Bollinger Bands / GET Stochastic / ADX, Zak Mir http://www.esignallearning.com/education/marketmaster/archive/2009/archive_index.aspx?date=011609
- SFO Magazine, May 2006, What’s the BandWidth, John Forman http://www.sfomag.com/article.aspx?ID=830
- The Street.com, 10/4/01, Leader of the Bands: An Interview with John Bollinger, Dan Fitzpatrick http://www.thestreet.com/story/10001959/1/leader-of-the-bands-an-interview-with-john-bollinger.html
- SFO Magazine, February 2005, Is the VIX Dead? Tweak the Parameters for Better Signals, Christopher Hendrix http://www.sfomag.com/article.aspx?ID=602
- Forbes.com, Bollinger Bands 101, Ben Berentson, 11/06/2001 http://www.forbes.com/2001/11/06/1106chartroom.html
- Using Bollinger Band "Bands" To Gauge Trends, by Boris Schlossberg, http://www.investopedia.com/articles/trading/05/022205.asp
- Yahoo! Finance Charts User Guide, Bollinger Bands http://biz.yahoo.com/charts/guide13.html