Pivot Points

Below are the calculations for the floor trader pivots that are sometimes used in the broadcast and are listed daily in the ShadowTrader Pro Swing Trader. The high, low and close used in the calculation is from the prior day’s values. Generally these values are derived from the E-mini S&P futures, also known as “ESThe S&P 500 e-mini contract. In the broadcast we use this as our primary instrument to define market direction and effect short term trades when we have a bias in the market. This is the electronic contract that trades around the clock, as opposed to the pit traded contract. Sometimes the pit traded version is called the “big contract”. Futures contracts on are denoted by two letters and then a letter and a number to define their expiration month. The ES has four contract periods per year which expire in March, June, September, and December. These four months are denoted by the letters H, M, U, and Z. For example, if it was 2012, then the March contract would be called the /ESH2. Thinkorswim requires a forward slash before the letters. Certain trading platforms and charting packages ma...”. The pivots can be calculated using 24hour data or only trading hours only data. Although experimentation has proven both to be valid, we have found using trading hours only data to be more relevant as large gaps often put the pivot points too far outside of the market to be of any use. The “special sauce” is that we take the high and low in the futures that traded during equity trading hours only. So 9:30 to 4pm, even though each day’s futures session actually ends at 4:15pm EST. For the closing value we take the settlement value from the CME as opposed to just the Last price at 4:15pm. The settlement value does NOT have to be exactly the same as whatever the 4:15pm LAST was. It usually is, but can be different by a couple of ticks or more. When at the site, refresh the page if necessary to make sure you have the correct day’s data on the screen. Write down the figure from that site and plug it and your high and low (from your intraday ESThe S&P 500 e-mini contract. In the broadcast we use this as our primary instrument to define market direction and effect short term trades when we have a bias in the market. This is the electronic contract that trades around the clock, as opposed to the pit traded contract. Sometimes the pit traded version is called the “big contract”. Futures contracts on are denoted by two letters and then a letter and a number to define their expiration month. The ES has four contract periods per year which expire in March, June, September, and December. These four months are denoted by the letters H, M, U, and Z. For example, if it was 2012, then the March contract would be called the /ESH2. Thinkorswim requires a forward slash before the letters. Certain trading platforms and charting packages ma... chart) into a simple Xcel with the formulas below. “R” means Resistance and “S” means Support.
PIVOT = (High + Close + Low)/3
R3 = High + 2(Pivot – Low)
R2 = Pivot + (R1 – S1)
R1 = (2*Pivot) – Low
S1 = (2*Pivot) – High
S2 = Pivot – (R1 – S1)
S3 = Low – 2(Hi – Pivot)