Do you use rolling or set pivot levels for forex? For example, for week levels -- if it is Wednesday, do you have levels marked from the week of Monday through Friday or the week from Wednesday to Tuesday? I use levels from the Mon thru Fri week, but I have seen that TOS uses rolling pivots for this period. What is your take? Thanks, Greg
My take is you use the pivots that you believe most everyone else uses. If you're using some unique time frame pivot, you may find yourself being the only trader reacting at those levels.
where can i get daily and weekly levels for pivot and s/r for the pairs? Which ones are most common? I have seen woodies, demark, camarilla etc.. thanks
I don't know what the difference for these are, and I would love for someone to explain them as well, but the best way to get the pivot levels is to put the formula into an excel spreadsheet (or program it into an indicator, if you know how to do that). Support and resistance levels are easy enough to see if you know just the simplest things about charts.
bugscoe offers some great advice. If pivots "work", and that's a big if, the reason they "work" is because everyone is watching the same thing and reacting accordingly. (Pretty much the same thing can be said for Fib levels, etc). Going off on one's own and creating a unique set of pivots is an exercise in futility in my opinion, because you'll be the only one making trading decisions based on something no one else is seeing.
I think you have a mis perception of what pivots are. I don't know if anyone believes these to be magic numbers that for some reason just seem to have significance. I think they were purposefully invented to be used exactly as they are being used today. They are points in the market where everyone goes "ok lets re evaluate thing" then the war between buyers and sellers is re invigorated and you can choose new sides. They aren't magic but they do work if you understand PA.
Thank you for your opinion, but I think your view is a bit shortsighted. It would make no sense to invent an indicator and then try to teach it to a bunch of traders until it works (especially if it didn't naturally). The pivot levels show relationships between the "typical" price (high-low-close) and the buying and selling pressures (high and low) of the previous period. In this way, the levels most likely are subconsciously respected by normal market players, and enhanced by traders. The same would go with fib levels -- they do not interrupt the trend (usually), but tend to show how far something can correct before seeing a sub-correction. You could make this type of argument about literally almost everything (things are the way they are because people are told so), but it is inevitably almost always untrue (though of course there will be some truth to a degree -- ex. people are told they want sex/relationships, but in the end they want it naturally moreso). It's an intelligent person's trap.
hmm. Interesting. Not sure I fully understood what you were saying but I think i got the gist of it. Are you saying that those are naturally corrective levels and that by highlighting them we just get more people to pay attention to them?
yes, exactly. It would be interesting to test them on very old market data. I put it on my to do list, but I have higher trading agendas until my college winter or summer breaks. Interesting study, and a good idea for a thread when I get around to it. Good luck trading. Greg
I use daily pivot levels on the Eur/Usd, which is all I trade, that are calculated from 5pm EST to 5pm. The weekly pivots I have are calculated from Sunday 5pm to Sunday 5pm.