What are Bollinger Bands?
Bollinger Bands are three lines drawn around the price: a 20-period moving average in the middle and two bands two standard deviations above and below it. The bands widen when the price swings more and narrow when it calms down, so they show changes in volatility at a glance.
From the Staxo crypto glossary. The examples use Kraken daily candles (UTC), Oct 10, 2025 to Oct 10, 2026, for the eight coins on Staxo's free plan that are not stablecoins.
How Bollinger Bands are calculated
The middle band is the 20-day simple moving average of the close. Take the standard deviation of those same 20 closes, add two of them to the middle band for the upper band and subtract two for the lower band. The bands were developed by the trader John Bollinger in the 1980s, and 20 days with two standard deviations is still the standard setting.
The distance between the bands, divided by the middle band, is the band width. It grows when the price swings and shrinks when it calms down. Bitcoin's band width was 44.5% at its widest, on Feb 12, 2026, and 4.2% at its narrowest, on Aug 15, 2026. On Oct 10, 2026 it was 6.0%.
How often did prices close outside the bands?
| Coin | Closes above upper | Closes below lower | Days outside | Narrowest band | Widest band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Solana | 30 | 21 | 14% | 7.0%, Aug 16, 2026 | 68.8%, Feb 12, 2026 |
| Ethereum | 24 | 21 | 12% | 4.5%, Aug 17, 2026 | 66.8%, Feb 12, 2026 |
| BNB | 24 | 20 | 12% | 3.0%, Jul 29, 2026 | 59.3%, Feb 13, 2026 |
| XRP | 21 | 22 | 12% | 5.7%, Apr 14, 2026 | 71.2%, Aug 27, 2026 |
| TRON | 31 | 12 | 12% | 2.5%, Aug 8, 2026 | 22.0%, Jun 12, 2026 |
| Cardano | 22 | 19 | 11% | 6.3%, May 4, 2026 | 67.5%, Jun 12, 2026 |
| Dogecoin | 19 | 22 | 11% | 3.6%, Aug 17, 2026 | 54.5%, Oct 21, 2025 |
| Bitcoin | 19 | 18 | 10% | 4.2%, Aug 15, 2026 | 44.5%, Feb 12, 2026 |
Bitcoin closed outside its bands on 37 of 365 days, 19 above and 18 below. TRON leaned hardest to one side: 31 closes above the upper band against 12 below the lower one, in a year it ended +2.9%. When a price climbs steadily, it tends to ride along the upper band.
The squeeze: when the bands get narrow
Traders call a stretch of unusually narrow bands a squeeze. Quiet periods do not last forever, so a squeeze is watched as a sign that a bigger move may come. The bands say nothing about its direction.
Bitcoin's narrowest band of the window came on Aug 15, 2026. In the 14 days after it, the close moved as far as +27.4% from that day's close. Four other coins hit their narrowest band within a week of the same date. One episode in one year shows how a squeeze can play out, not how the next one will.
A close outside a band is not a signal on its own either. It only says the price moved far compared with its last 20 days, which in a trend can happen several days in a row. Many traders use the bands next to RSI or support and resistance.
How to practice it in Staxo
Bollinger Bands are a Pro feature in Staxo: switch on BB in the indicator row and the bands are drawn on the price chart with the standard 20 and 2 settings, on the timeframe you choose. On the free plan, the RSI is free and the chart shows the same quiet and wild stretches, just without the bands around them.
To practice with demo money, pick a calm coin and a volatile one from the free plan and watch how far each moves from its middle band before it turns. Note the band width when you open a small position and again when you close it. After a few weeks you will see how the bands track volatility, and how often a close outside a band was followed by another one.
Free on iPhone and Android, $500 in demo money. Also on Google Play.Also on the App Store.
Bollinger Bands questions
What do Bollinger Bands tell you?
How far the price is from its 20-day average compared with how much it has been swinging. Wide bands mean high volatility, narrow bands low volatility. A close near the upper or lower band means the price is stretched relative to its recent range. They do not tell you the direction of the next move.
What settings do Bollinger Bands use?
The standard is a 20-period simple moving average with bands two standard deviations above and below it. Staxo uses these settings. Shorter periods make the bands react faster, and wider multiples, such as 2.5, make closes outside them rarer.
Try it with $500 in demo money.
Free download, no card. Also on Google Play.Also on the App Store.
Educational content, not investment advice. The examples describe prices from Oct 10, 2025 to Oct 10, 2026 and say nothing about where they go next. Staxo is a simulator: you practice with demo money, never real money.