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Bollinger Bands vs Keltner Channels

Bollinger Bands and Keltner channels are both a twenty-day average with two edges, and they differ in what sets the edges: the bands use how far the last twenty closes have scattered from their average, the channels use how far the last ten days have reached from top to bottom. This paper shows you the two on gold's real daily bars of 2025 — the bands outside the channels in the April rise and inside them through the summer — the idea as an elastic belt and a buckled belt on one waist, both on the daily chart, the same day through both sums, and how to keep the two apart on your platform.

Difficulty
Intermediate
Reading time
5 min
Pages
8
Reviewed by
Saman Rahbar

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Two sleeves round one price

Bollinger Bands and Keltner channels are both a twenty-day average with two edges round it, and the edges are set differently. The bands use how far the last twenty closes have scattered from their average; the channels use how far the last ten days have reached from top to bottom. On 22 April 2025 gold's bands were 521 dollars apart and its channels 341, because the closes had scattered further than two days' reach. On 18 July the bands had pinched to 86 while the channels stood at 166.

Two belts on one waist

The picture is two belts on one waist. The elastic belt stretches with every change in the waist and springs back: that is Bollinger, sized by how far the closes have scattered from their average, which changes fast when a few big days arrive and shrinks fast when they leave. The buckled belt is set a notch or two out from a measured girth and moves a notch at a time: that is Keltner, sized by the average true range, which changes slowly because it is itself an average. The same waist, measured two ways.

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