No, these are NOT Bollinger Bands.. The Cyatophilum Bands are an original formula that I created. You will probably never find it anywhere else. Their behavior is the following: When they are horizontal it means the trend is going sideways and they represent supports (lower band) and resistances (upper band). When they are climbing or falling it means the trend is either bullish or bearish and they represent Trend Lines. The strategy enters Long on a Bull Breakout and enters Short on a Bear Breakout. The exits are triggered either on a Trend Reversal, a Stop Loss or a Take Profit.
0. Choose your symbol and timeframe. Then add the Backtest version to your chart. If at any time you decide to change your timeframe, go back to step 1.
1. Open the strategy tester and look at the buy & hold line. If it is mostly climbing (last value greater than 0) then it means we are in a bull market. You should then opt or a long only strategy. If it is mostly dropping (last value lower than 0) then it means we are in a bear market. You should then opt or a short only strategy.
Note: This first step is really important. Trading against the market has very little chances to succeed.
2. Go into the Strategy Input Parameters: check "Enable Long Results" and uncheck "Enable Short Results" if you are in a long only strategy. check "Enable Short Results" and uncheck "Enable Long Results" if you are in a short only strategy.
3. Open the Strategy Tester and open the Strategy Properties. We are going to find the base parameters for the Bands. The "Bands Lookback" is the main parameter to configure for any strategy. It corresponds to how strong of a support and resistance the bands will behave. The lower the timeframe, the higher lookback you will need. It can move from 10 to 60. For example 60 is a good value for a 3 minute timeframe. Try different values, and look at the "net profit" value in the Overview tab of the Strategy Tester. Keep the Lookback value that shows the best net profit value. Then play with the "Bands Smoothing" from 2 to 20 and keep the best net profit value. The "Band Smoothing" is used to reduce noise. Usually, the default value (10) is what gives the best results. From this point you should already be able to have a profitable strategy (net profit>0), but we can improve it using the Stop Loss and the Take Profit feature.
4. To activate the Stop Loss feature, click on the "SECURITY" checkbox You should see horizontal red lines appear. A Long/short exit alert will be triggered if the price were to cross this line. (A red Xcross will appear) Choose the Stop Loss percentage. On top of that, you can enable the feature "Trailing Stop". It will make the red line follow the price, at a speed that you can configure with the "Trailing Speed" parameter. Now, sometimes a stop is triggered and it was just a fakeout. You can enable "Re-entries after a stop" to avoid missing additional opportunities.
5. To activate the Take Profit feature, click on the "TAKE PROFIT" checkbox You should see horizontal green lines appear. A Long/short exit alert will be triggered if the price were to cross this line. (A flag will appear) Choose the Take Profit percentage. A low takeprofit will provide a safer strategy but can reduce potential profits. A higher takeprofit will increase risk but can provide higher potential profits.
6. Money Management You can configure the backtest according to your own money management. Let's say you have 10 000 $ as initial capital and want to trade only 5%, set the Order Size to 5% of Equity. You can increase net profit by increasing the order size but this is at your own risk.
Use it literally anywhere This indicator can be used on any timeframe and market (not only cryptocurrencies).
About the Backtest below
The Net Profit (Gross profit - Gross loss) is calculated with a commission of 0.05% on each order. No leverage used. This is a long strategy. Each trade is made with 10 % of equity from an inital capital of 10 000$. The net profit can be bigger by increasing the % of equity but this a trader's rule to minimise the risk.