Kirshenbaum Bands

Bollinger-style sigma bands widen on any large price swing, whether that swing is a clean directional trend or pure chop - both produce a high standard deviation of price. Kirshenbaum Bands, attributed to Ken Kirshenbaum, use a different reference: a linear regression line fitted to closes over the lookback window, offset above and below by a multiple of the regression's standard error of estimate (the root- mean-square residual of closes away from that fitted line). The distinction matters because the two inputs answer different questions. Price standard deviation answers "how much has price moved". Regression standard error answers "how well does a straight line explain that move". A clean, orderly trend keeps closes tight against the fitted line even while price itself covers a lot of ground, so the bands stay narrow. Once bars start missing the trend line - the market starts chopping rather than trending, or a trend is about to change - the standard error grows and the bands widen, even if the day-to-day price range has not obviously changed. That separates "the trend is intact but moving fast" from "the trend itself is breaking down", which a plain volatility band cannot do. Notes and limitations - The regression line, midline and both bands are refit from scratch on every bar over the fixed window - there is no smoothing between bars beyond what the shared window provides. - The regression's standard error divides by (n-2); InpPeriod must be at least 4 for that to be meaningful, and the indicator enforces this at load. - Purely a visual channel - it does not classify "trending" versus "breaking down" itself, draw a signal arrow, or alert; the trader reads band width as the indicator is built for a discretionary read, not an automated trigger.

Indicator · MT4 · v1.0 · Free

Tags: Bollinger Bands · Trend · MT4 Indicator · MQL4 Source Code

MetaTrader 4 & 5 indicators · PolyMaria