McMillan Volatility Bands w/ Buy & Sell Signals [optstrategist]

29 Apr 2020

BACKGROUND
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 model. 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 be used on any asset and on any timeframe.

Furthermore, the indicator will plot buy and sell signals based on a trading system used by Larry in his flagship 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.

PARAMETERS
ma_length => length of the moving average that the volatility bands work off of
outside_sigma => standard deviation of outer volatility band
inside_sigma => standard deviation of inner volatility band
entry_trigger_cushion => this refers to the percentage of the signal bar's range. The default value is 0.34. This means price will need to move 1/3 (~34%) of the signal bar's range [I]beyond[/I] the high (for a buy) or low (for a sell) of the signal bar to trigger a buy/sell entry. This entry plots the arrow on the chart. We have found requiring this extra move in price eliminates many of the less-desirable signals at the expense of entering the better signals a little later.

WANT TO PURCHASE OR NEED MORE INFORMATION ON McMILLAN VOLATILITY BANDS?
Visit the link below to see purchasing options as well as screenshots of the indicator and how we trade it at McMillan Analysis Corp.

29 Mei 2020

Nota Keluaran

We changed the default color of the signal-setup bars from either red or green (for sell or buy signals, respectively) to a neutral blue. I tend to use a single color like grey for all the bars which makes our indicators show up better. However, I noticed most users will be using red/green candlesticks and were not able to see the signal-setup bars. The "confirmed entry" buy/sell arrows will remain the same.

As was the case before, you can change all of these colors to your liking.

29 Mei 2020

Nota Keluaran

(reference last update above)

2 Jun 2020

Nota Keluaran

(reference last update above)