The ‘Thief’ strategy

I remember when I met John Bollinger, creator of the Bollinger Band, at a trading conference we were both speaking at in London. I made some ridiculous joke about Keltner Channels being better than Bollinger Bands. He just looked at me like:

“You’re an idiot, I’m not even going to pretend to laugh to make you feel good”

Alright, I thought, no small talk!

I like this guy, straight down to business. We proceeded to talk about the markets, Bollinger Bands, and other traders we both knew. Later on that day, in his talk, he shared a swing trading strategy he uses called “The Thief”.

Before anyone asks, yes he’s ok with me sharing this. I wanted to include it in ‘Trading Plan Pro’, my plan and strategy software so I messaged him last year and he was fine with it.

So what is the Thief? So-called because as John said “It’s like stealing money”

For the short trade:

• Daily Chart
• Set your bands to 20,2
• Day 1 – Price closes above the upper band
• Day 2 – Price closes below the upper band
• The daily range of both days must be > ATR(14)
• Sell short on the close of Day 2

Flip for the long trade.

I’ve added a few screenshots below so you can see some examples.

Today, think about how you could systematise parts of your trading.

We all love the idea of swashbuckling our way to riches using nothing but our highly-tuned trading sense to make decisions.

But developing some kind of mechanical system can really help you think more clearly about your trading ideas, even if you never intend to trade that way.