Pivot point calculator

What pivot points are

Pivot points turn the previous period's high, low and close into a set of reference levels for the current period. They were used by floor traders long before charting software, and many day traders still watch them because so many other traders do. The classic pivot is simply the average of high, low and close: P = (H + L + C) ÷ 3.

The five methods

• Classic: R1 = 2P − L, S1 = 2P − H, R2/S2 = P ± (H − L). The most widely used.
• Fibonacci: the same pivot, with levels at 38.2%, 61.8% and 100% of the previous range.
• Woodie: gives the close double weight, P = (H + L + 2C) ÷ 4, so levels react more to where the market settled.
• Camarilla: tight levels built around the close using multiples of the range × 1.1; popular for short-term mean-reversion.
• DeMark: depends on whether the period closed above or below its open, producing one resistance and one support.

Using them sensibly

For forex, choose which "day" you use. A day ending at 17:00 New York time (the FX rollover) is the common standard and avoids the tiny Sunday candle some platforms show. Pivot levels are not predictions: treat them as places where you expect a reaction and wait for price behaviour to confirm it, with a stop-loss sized using the position size calculator.