Michael Covel talks with John Bollinger on today’s podcast. Bollinger is responsible for a technical indicator that just about everyone has heard of: Bollinger Bands. Bollinger has been popularizing price-based indicators since the early 1980s, and Bollinger Bands arose from the need for adaptive trading bands and the observation that volatility was dynamic, not static, as was widely believed at that time. Covel and Bollinger discuss Bollinger Bands as described for the lay person; defining when a price is relatively high or relatively low; defining “relatively high” and “relatively low”; measuring volatility to determine the “width” of a Bollinger Band; standard deviation; the beginnings of Bollinger Bands, and how John Bollinger came to put it together; different ideas about volatility in the 1980s; some of Bollinger’s early curiosity triggers, and why he started digging into finance after going to art school; light, film, and Bollinger’s experience at the School of Visual Arts; Bollinger’s experience in his apprenticeship to learn technical analysis; “the best authority is the price itself”, and why this statement isn’t very well accepted in the mainstream; differences between fundamental and technical analysts; Bollinger’s look at media and the presentation of his message over the years; why Bollinger would be known as a quantitative analyst instead of a technician if he started his career now; position sizing; and why volatility is the least understood aspect of the market. More information on John Bollinger can be found at www.bollingerbands.com. Want a free trend following DVD go to trendfollowing.com/win.