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When speaking of Bollinger Bands, most of the sources say that the recommended period is 20 days while saying that this could be used on different time frames - for example see the first chart here: https://www.tradingview.com/wiki/Bollinger_Bands_(BB):

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Seems like kinda inconsistent advice. Isn't it then actually recommended to use 20 candles (candle being 1, 2, 5, 15 minutes, 1 hour, ... depending on time scale) rather than 20 days? It wouldn't make much sense to use 20 days on 5 minute chart would it? Also tradingview by default uses 20 candles. Just want to confirm on the recommendation.

Tomas
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    I'm only have a limited understanding of Bollinger Bands so I don't have much to offer other than when calculating indicators, you use periods rather than days. IOW, a twenty period simple moving average of 5 minute data uses twenty 5 minute bars and a twenty period simple moving average of hourly data uses twenty 1 hour bars. You can use any period that you want and vary it if so inclined, but you don't use a fixed 20 day period for 1 minute, 5 minute, hourly or daily data. – Bob Baerker May 31 '18 at 14:38

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If you are looking at intraday charts you would use the 20 day period for the interval you are using. For example, if you are looking at a 15 minute chart you would use 20 periods where each period or bar or candle is 15 minutes.

The reason most sources specify a 20 day period is because the most common chart most people look at is a daily chart, so by default in their explanations they use the term 20 days, but in reality it is 20 periods for whatever timeframe you are using.

Why do they specify a default of 20 days instead of 20 periods? Because if a novice is reading the article or book or listening to the recording, they will get confused and won't know what is meant by a period.

Vicky
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Victor
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  • Thanks Victor! Ad the last paragraph - that's not good idea, they are actually creating confusion... – Tomas Jun 03 '18 at 13:23