The full version of this report with daily stock picks and real-time email alerts is available here for $20 per month Good Morning, Traders. With markets largely unchanged yesterday we figured it was a good time to point out some interesting intraday action via a couple of snapshots. Those of you who skip the <i>Under the Hood</i> section every day and race down to the <i>Bulls & Bears</i> or the <i>Model Portfolio</i> sections, may want to take a gander at the ES pivot points a little bit closer regardless of whether you are a futures daytrader or not. <img border=5 width=560 height=650 src="http://www.shadowtrader.net/focus_report_charts2008/080925FOC2.gif"> <img border=5 width=560 height=650 src="http://www.shadowtrader.net/focus_report_charts2008/080925ES.gif"> The upper picture is a shot of Wednesday's <i>Focus Report</i>. The lower is a shot of the <b>ES</b> or S&P Emini futures on a 15 minute timeframe from yesterday. Note how the high of the day not once but twice was exactly at the point called "pivot" which was listed in the report coming out the night before. This does not always work as textbook perfect as this, however, it works more often than not. Pauses or turns in the market (called pivots) often happen on an intraday basis exactly according to those figures. Plot the pivots daily and watch for awhile, you'll be pleasantly surprised. Not a futures trader, you say? That's fine. But why not use as many tools are are available to you to better time your stock and option entries? Being aware of where the pivots lie can help you do that and make a big difference. As far as the market is concerned, the top-line figures were inverted, creating a rather rare inside day which unfortunately does not give much clue. Market feels like its waiting for more news on the bailout. We remain patient and mostly in cash.
Nazzdack You have to know what type of day you are involved with. You have a good point in that if newbies assume they could just put in limit orders against pivots on fast market days like Thursday/Friday of last week, they would be sadly mistaken. Yesterday was the picture perfect day to trade off of floor pivots. Market just stayed rangebound all day and moves were minimal. Interestingly enough on the Friday you mention, R2 was 1268.58. The opening print on the ES at 9:30am EST was exactly 1268.00 -shadow
i find that R3 and S3 are very accurate when market goes that far. too much noise with the others. By noise i mean there are too many other supp/resis spots based on previous highs/lows, trendlines, FIBs, etc, when you are close in towards the pivot. Not as accurate. Of course one could show where they worked time and again, i could show where they didn't time and again. not so valuable imo. jayford
Hi guys One question please. I often hear about pivot points fir ES, but have so far not used them myself. Are pivot points always calculated from the previous days open and closing prices? and if so, does most participants calcultate them the same way? Would also be interested to know which pivot points the floor traders use, and where I can find them or how I can calculate them myself. thanks for any input! Andy
The same pivot info can be obtained here for $0 per month. http://www.stocktrading.com/Tradinginfo.htm
R3 and S3 doesn't work because it's not standardized. go to mypivots website and look at woodie standard camarillo R3. they are all different. while PP and S/R1 and R1/S2 are all the same standardized pivots work because everybody knows what they are.. if every body has different numbers they just dont work if you had to pay for pivots, pivots wouldn't work, unless alot of people were obtaining them and paying for them, or if they were obtainable free elsewhere
Pivots are a tool and only as good as the user with the tool. you must have market experience with pivots, i would say at least 3 months, and a great risk management plan. Rule #1 always know where you would get out if your wrong. Rule #2 ReRead rule #1.