What are pivot points?

Pivot points turn yesterday’s price range into a ladder of levels for today: a central pivot (P), resistance levels above it (R1, R2) and support levels below it (S1, S2). The drawing at the top of this page shows one day of 5-minute candles: price opens near P, drops to S1 and bounces, then stalls under R1.

They were originally used by floor traders, who took the previous day’s high, low and close at the start of each session to set the day’s key levels. Once calculated, the lines do not move until the next session. That is their appeal: everyone watching the same market sees the same numbers before the open.

The common reading: trading above P suggests strength, with R1 as the next target; trading below P suggests weakness, with S1 next. That is a bias, not a forecast, and the rest of this guide is about when to act on it.

Pivot point (P)
The average of the prior period’s high, low and close. The central line of the day, often read as the balance point between buyers and sellers.
R1, R2 (resistance)
Levels above P where rallies may stall. R1 is the first; R2 sits one full prior range above P.
S1, S2 (support)
Levels below P where declines may stall: the mirror images of R1 and R2.
Prior range (H − L)
Yesterday’s high minus yesterday’s low. It sets how far apart the outer levels are: a wide day gives wide pivots.

How to calculate pivot points: the standard formulas

The standard set, also called floor or traditional pivots, uses only three prices from the prior period: the high (H), the low (L) and the close (C).

Hypothetical, as in the drawing below: yesterday’s candle has H = 110, L = 100 and C = 108. P = (110 + 100 + 108) / 3 = 106. R1 = 2 × 106 − 100 = 112 and S1 = 2 × 106 − 110 = 102. The range is 10, so R2 = 106 + 10 = 116 and S2 = 106 − 10 = 96.

Notice the close. Yesterday closed near its high, so P (106) sits above the middle of the range (105), and the whole ladder leans up. TradingView’s Traditional type extends the ladder to R5 and S5; here R3 is 122 and S3 is 92, far from price on a normal day.

  • P = (H + L + C) / 3
  • R1 = 2P − L
  • S1 = 2P − H
  • R2 = P + (H − L)
  • S2 = P − (H − L)

Turn your phone sideways to read the drawing. Tap to close.

On the left, yesterday’s single hand-drawn candle tagged H = 110, L = 100, C = 108; on the right, a ladder of lines with the math: R2 = P + (H − L) = 116, R1 = 2P − L = 112, P = (H + L + C) / 3 = 106, S1 = 2P − H = 102 and S2 = P − (H − L) = 96.

Daily pivots for intraday charts: which high, low and close?

For day trading on 1- to 15-minute charts, use daily pivots: the prior day’s high, low and close, fixed for the session and recalculated each day. Weekly and monthly pivots use last week’s or last month’s numbers and serve as bigger background levels.

For US stocks, the session that matters is the regular one, 9:30–16:00 ET. TradingView notes that extended-hours data is usually not included in the daily candle, so pivots computed with pre-market and after-hours prices can be very different. Decide which version you use and keep it; US stock market hours lists the sessions.

Before the open, write the five numbers down and note where price trades relative to P. A stock opening above P has a bullish lean, but the first minutes after the open are noisy, so many traders let the opening range form before acting on any line.

Pivot point trading strategy: bounce or break

Each line offers two trades. A bounce: price tests the level and a candle closes back on the original side (a rejection). A break: a candle closes clearly through the level, then price retests it from the other side and holds. In both cases the closed candle is the trigger; a touch alone proves nothing.

On a quiet, two-sided day, traders treat S1 and R1 as the edges of a range and P as its middle, as in the drawing below; the range trading strategy guide covers that playbook.

Hypothetical bounce, with the levels above: price opens at $106.30, near P, and slides to S1 within the first hour. A 5-minute candle dips to $101.80 and closes at $102.40, back above S1 at 102. Buy at $102.40 with a stop at $101.60, below the wick: $0.80 of risk per share. The first target is $104.00, just under session VWAP at $104.10, for 2R; P at 106 is the next level for any remainder.

Size: risking 1% of a $10,000 account ($100) at $0.80 per share allows 125 shares, so a stop-out costs about $100 before slippage. The position size calculator does the math, and stop loss and take profit explains the placement.

UpTickFlow, our invite-only TradingView indicator, follows the same confirmation-first idea, so weigh this accordingly. It waits for a candle to close at a level, draws the entry, stop and target before the trade, scores the setup from 0 to 100 and stays quiet in chop: a second check, not a scanner.

  1. Before the open: plot P, R1, S1, R2 and S2, and mark yesterday’s high and low.
  2. Location: trade only at a line, not in the middle between two.
  3. Confirmation: a closed rejection candle for a bounce; a close through the line and a retest for a break.
  4. Stop: just beyond the level and the candle that triggered the trade.
  5. Target and size: the next line must pay at least your minimum reward; size so a stop-out costs a small, fixed amount.

Turn your phone sideways to read the drawing. Tap to close.

A hand-drawn range between a support zone at the bottom and a resistance zone at the top, with price bouncing between them: buy triangles near support, sell triangles near resistance, the middle third lightly shaded as a no-trade zone, and dotted stops just outside the range.

Confluence: pivots with VWAP and prior-day levels

A pivot is arithmetic on yesterday’s prices. It earns more attention when it lines up with something else traders watch: yesterday’s high or low, session VWAP, a swing level price has already reacted to, a round number or a weekly pivot.

In the example, R1 at 112 sits above yesterday’s high at 110, so a long from P meets 110 first: that is the real first obstacle. S1 at 102 sits above yesterday’s low at 100, which makes 100 a second line of defense below it.

VWAP is the most useful partner for intraday pivots because it moves with today’s volume while pivots stay fixed. The drawing below shows a VWAP reclaim: price pulls back to VWAP and closes back above it. When that pullback ends at the same price as P or S1, two independent levels agree. Price above both VWAP and P points to buyers in control, below both to sellers. A long at S1 below both lines, like the bounce example, is a trade back toward the middle, not with the day’s direction: that is why its first target was VWAP, not R1. See the VWAP trading strategy and support and resistance guides.

Turn your phone sideways to read the drawing. Tap to close.

A hand-drawn chart: price trends above a dashed VWAP line, pulls back to it and closes back above, labeled reclaim.

Fibonacci, Camarilla and Woodie pivot points

Several variants use the same prior-period data with different math. TradingView’s built-in indicator offers six types: Traditional, Fibonacci, Woodie, Classic, DM and Camarilla. In short:

No variant is the right one; they are different conventions. Pick one, learn how price behaves around it on your symbol, and don’t switch types to find a line that fits a move you already saw. Fibonacci pivots are also unrelated to drawing a Fibonacci retracement on a swing, even though they share the ratios.

  • Fibonacci: the same P, then R1 and S1 at 0.382 of the prior range from P, R2 and S2 at 0.618, and R3 and S3 at the full range. With the example numbers: S1 102.18, R1 109.82, S2 99.82, R2 112.18.
  • Woodie: gives more weight to the open; TradingView’s version sets P = (H + L + 2 × the current period’s open) / 4.
  • Camarilla: builds its levels around the prior close at fractions of the prior range, so the inner levels sit much closer together than standard pivots.

How to add pivot points on TradingView

The built-in indicator is called Pivot Points Standard. Open Indicators, search for it and add it to the chart; its settings decide which pivots you actually see.

Check it once against your own math from the daily chart; if P differs, look at the data settings first.

  1. Type: the formula. Traditional is the standard set taught in this guide.
  2. Pivots Timeframe: on Auto, TradingView uses daily pivots on charts up to and including 15 minutes, weekly pivots above 15 minutes and below one day, and monthly pivots on daily charts and up. So on a 30-minute or 1-hour chart Auto shows weekly pivots; choose Daily if you want yesterday’s levels.
  3. Number of Pivots Back: how many past periods are drawn (15 by default). Fewer sets keep the chart readable.
  4. Use Daily-based Values: on by default, so pivots come from daily data and match across timeframes. Turned off on an intraday chart, the indicator builds them from the chart’s own data, which can include extended hours and change the numbers.
  5. Show Labels/Prices and Labels Position: keep the labels and prices visible, and untick lines you never use, such as R4–R5 and S4–S5.

When pivot points fail

Pivot points fail often, and a failure looks like the setup at first. Same levels, another day: price rallies through yesterday’s high at 110 and stalls just under R1. You short at $111.80 after a small red candle, stop at $112.60 ($0.80, 125 shares). The next 5-minute candle closes at $113.10 and you are out for about −$100: a planned 1R loss, more if the stop slips.

The clue was there: price had just broken yesterday’s high, a sign of strength, and fading strength at a line everyone sees is a weak trade. The drawing below shows the alternative: a close outside ends the range, the short at the top is crossed out, and old resistance becomes support on the retest. With pivots, a close above R1 that holds on the retest turns R2 into the next target, as in the breakout trading strategy.

  • Trend days: price walks through P, R1 and R2 one after another, and every fade loses.
  • Crowded lines: the same numbers are on many screens, so stops cluster just beyond them and quick wicks through a level are common. Use a small buffer and wait for the close.
  • Gaps: a stock that opens beyond R1 or S1 has already left the nearby lines behind; the next level and VWAP matter more. See gap trading.
  • Too many lines: R1–R5 and S1–S5 plus weekly and monthly sets mean something is always near price. Keep P, R1, S1, R2 and S2.
  • Fixed levels: pivots are calculated once and ignore today’s news, so a line from yesterday’s quiet session may mean little after a big announcement.

Turn your phone sideways to read the drawing. Tap to close.

The end of a hand-drawn range: a candle closes above resistance, price comes back to it (retest: old resistance becomes new support) and a buy triangle prints; an earlier short at the top of the range is crossed out, with a note reading “a close outside ends the range”.