Episode 12: John Bollinger, CMT, CFA

12/10/21 • 67 min

Fill The Gap: The Official Podcast of the CMT Association

What are the first principles of the market?
Listeners this month will embark on a journey of original research. By examining the life and career of John Bollinger, CMT, CFA we will better understand how to identify the foundational elements of any market and begin the investigative process that leads to robust, durable investment processes.
Stripping away assumptions, and digging into how indicators are calculated, how data is structured and represented, and what actually drives price will aid traders and investors worldwide in developing their own process and edge.
Fill the Gap covers a lot of ground this month, including:

Why volatility is an opportunity
Why delivering consistent returns is far more important than picking market tops and bottoms
How Bollinger Bands and companion indicators were developed and why
Why optimization misleads system developers toward continuously fragile investment strategies

John is a lifelong student of the markets who has observed how structural changes and the advent of new investment vehicles have changed trading for each new generation – from the launch of options to the early days of cryptocurrency trading. From this perspective, he emphasizes how important it is to go back to the original source material and the forgotten legends of the markets who had a more intimate relationship with their trading as all their computation, calculation, and charting was done by hand.
This final episode of Season One is a launchpad for further investigation into the markets, demonstrating how thinking like a scientist will help all investors identify tools that provide an edge to the First Principles of the Markets.
To better understand the concepts covered, and current market commentary, we recommend reviewing the supplemental resources accompanying this episode using this link: go.cmtassociation.org/ftge12.

Fill the Gap, hosted by David Lundgren, CMT, CFA and Tyler Wood, CMT brings veteran market analysts and money managers onto a monthly podcast.

For complete show notes of every episode, visit: https://cmtassociation.org/development/podcasts/
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CMT Association is the global credentialing authority committed to advancing the discipline of technical analysis in the financial services industry. We serve members in over 137 countries. Our mission is to elevate investors mastery and skill in mitigating market risk and maximizing return in capital markets through a rigorous credentialing process, professional ethics, and continuous education. CMT Association formed in the late 1960s with headquarters in lower Manhattan, NY and Mumbai, India.
Learn more at: www.cmtassociation.org

Why volatility is an opportunity
Why delivering consistent returns is far more important than picking market tops and bottoms
How Bollinger Bands and companion indicators were developed and why
Why optimization misleads system developers toward continuously fragile investment strategies

Fill the Gap, hosted by David Lundgren, CMT, CFA and Tyler Wood, CMT brings veteran market analysts and money managers onto a monthly podcast.

Previous Episode

Episode 11: Irusha Peiris, CMT

For our penultimate season one episode of Fill the Gap, we are very fortunate to feature an in-depth conversation with Irusha Peiris, CMT.

Not only has Irusha been practicing the CAN SLIM methodology made famous by William J. O'Neil in his bestselling book, How to Make Money in Stocks, for over two decades; he has also been working within the O'Neil companies since 2009. As a CMT charterholder, portfolio manager at O'Neil Global Advisors, weekly contributor on IBD's must-listen weekly podcast Investing with IBD, and former Director for O'Neil's excellent Market Smith web-based equity research product, Irusha brings a wealth of experience and perspective to this highly informative discussion.

Our conversation spans topics that range from staying focused on picking "game-changing stocks" to the importance of patience and discipline; from always staying humble, to how to manage the pesky mental challenge of constant portfolio drawdowns, and so much more.

As a life sciences student in Boston, Irusha was given the fateful advice to only get into medicine if he was 100% sure it was what he wanted. Certain that he wasn't that certain, he decided to shift his focus to the stock market, where he truly found his passion - and we are grateful that he did.

To better understand the concepts covered and market commentary included in this episode, we recommend reviewing the supplemental resources available on the CMT Association website using this link: go.cmtassociation.org/ftge11.

Fill the Gap, hosted by David Lundgren, CMT, CFA and Tyler Wood, CMT brings veteran market analysts and money managers onto a monthly podcast.

Next Episode

Episode 13: Jim Bianco, CMT

Is the Fed raising rates in 2022? What will happen to equities? What is an NFT and why should I care? How can I hedge my portfolio against inflation?
Answers to each of these questions and many more are covered in this month's interview. In the kickoff to season #2 of Fill the Gap, we are joined by one of the best macro strategists on the street – and a man who came close to being a Fed Governor himself!
James Bianco, CMT is President of Bianco Research, L.L.C., an Arbor Research & Trading, LLC affiliate based in Chicago. Since November 1990, he has been a highly sought-after Fixed Income Strategist and macro market analyst. A longstanding member of the CMT Association and a familiar face in financial news media, Jim’s commentaries are primarily devoted to fixed income markets, and he places special emphasis on the money flow characteristics of primary dealers, mutual funds, hedge funds, futures traders, banks, and institutional investors.
Other topics he has researched include the effects of commodity prices on bond yields, how the ratio of the equity market’s capitalization as a percentage of the nominal gross domestic product affects price performance of the stock market, the role government regulation plays in determining inflation, how market performance affects mutual fund investors, the role politics plays in setting interest rates and measuring the stock and bond markets from a total return perspective.
In this episode, we cover all of Jim’s specialties and take a look at the emerging asset class with a clear-eyed description of decentralized finance, the protocols underlying altcoins in the cryptocurrency market, and the proliferation of NFTs.

Fill the Gap, hosted by David Lundgren, CMT, CFA and Tyler Wood, CMT brings veteran market analysts and money managers onto a monthly podcast.

Fill The Gap: The Official Podcast of the CMT Association - Episode 12: John Bollinger, CMT, CFA

Transcript

John Bollinger, CMT, CFA, is the president and founder of Bollinger Capital Management, Inc., an investment management company that provides technically-driven money management services and develops proprietary research for institutions and individuals. He is probably best known for his Bollinger Bands, which he developed in the early 1980s. Traders and i