Pivot Point Trading

Here's Your Lesson on Pivot Point Trading

You are going to love this lesson. Using pivot points as a trading strategy has been around for a long time and was originally used by floor traders. This was a nice simple way for floor traders to have some idea of where the market was heading during the course of the day with only a few simple calculations.

The pivot point is the level at which the market direction changes for the day. Using some simple arithmetic and the previous days high, low and close, a series of points are derived. These points can be critical support and resistance levels.

The pivot level and levels calculated from that are collectively known as pivot levels.

Every day the market you are following has an open, high, low and a close for the day This information basically contains all the data you need to calculate the pivot levels.

The reason pivot point trading is so popular is that pivot points are predictive as opposed to lagging. You use the information of the previous day to calculate potential turning points for the day you are about to trade (present day).

Because so many traders follow pivot points you will often find that the market reacts at these levels. This give you an opportunity to trade.

If you would rather work the pivot points out by yourself, the formula I use is below:

Pivot Point = ( High + Close + Low )/3
Resistance 3 = High + 2*(Pivot - Low)
Resistance 2 = Pivot + (R1 - S1)
Resistance 1 = 2 * Pivot - Low
Support 1 = 2 * Pivot - High
Support 2 = Pivot - (R1 - S1)
Support 3 = Low - 2*(High - Pivot)

As you can see from the above formula, just by having the previous days high, low and close you eventually finish up with 7 points, 3 resistance levels, 3 support levels and the actual pivot point.

If the market opens above the pivot point then the bias for the day is for long trades as long as price remains above the pivot point. If the market opens below the pivot point then the bias for the day is for short trades as long as the market remains below the pivot point.

The three most important pivot points are R1, S1 and the actual pivot point.

The general idea behind trading pivot points is to look for a reversal or break of R1 or S1. By the time the market reaches R2,R3 or S2,S3 the market will already be overbought or oversold and these levels should be used for exits rather than entries.

A perfect set up would be for the market to open above the pivot level and then stall slightly at R1 then go on to R2. You would enter on a break of R1 with a target of R2 and if the market was really strong close half at R2 and target R3 with the remainder of your position.

 

This all looks pretty straight forward.

Unfortunately life is not that simple and we have to deal with each trading day the best way we can.  Here are some more tips for day trading.

·        Select only few stocks

·        Select only liquid stocks (Very heavily traded)

·        Enter/Exit at comfort levels

·        Exit a stock as early as possible and select another momentum stock.

• Trade with volume and be content with your profit. (Don’t be over ambitious)

·        Keep strict stop loss

• Don’t  hesitate to book loss (Otherwise the loss will become unbearable)
• Don’t challenge the market
• Don’t expect the market to behave the way you want.
• If the market behaves the opposite way to your liking go double long / go double short.
• Don’t wait for miracle to happen (which never happens).

Are you interested in having a pivot calculator? click here to download your FREE pivot calculator