Free Pivot Point Calculator

sidinuk · Aug 5, 2005

Over the next few weeks I am going to see whether I can develop a mechanical trading system based around pivot points.

I have put a free calculator on my site: Pivot Point Calculator.

There is also a standalone desktop calculator available to download there for free.

Does anyone use pivot points in their trading? Are they useful or just a waste of time?

jnash · Aug 5, 2005

Does anyone use pivot points in their trading?

I use the free pivot calculator at: http://pitrading.com/pivot_points.htm

It doesn't require you to enter the high, low, close. You just need to enter the symbol and it does the rest. Also does weekly and monthly pivots in addition to daily.

Are they useful or just a waste of time?

I look at pivots everyday for the minis. They are almost a must for futures trading.

I mainly use them as short-term overbought and oversold indicators when greater than R2/R3 and less than S2/S3.

sidinuk · Aug 5, 2005

jnash,

Thanks for your reply. That pivot point calculator is a great idea, does it do futures as well as stocks?

jnash · Aug 5, 2005

Thanks for your reply. That pivot point calculator is a great idea, does it do futures as well as stocks?

I use the underlying index for futures (NQ = ^NDX, ES = ^GSPC, YM = ^DJI).

SwingTrader64 · Aug 5, 2005

I'm been using the Pivot Point to consistently and successfully trade the E-index markets of the YM: E- Dow, ES: emini S&P 500 and the NQ: emini Nasdaq 100. When combined with Time and Volume they produce more winner than losers.

Works best within consolidated, range bound or sideways markets. The 'internals' help to keep losses low when on the opposite side of the market.

Buy Support. Sell resistance.

Trade Well,

SwingTrader64

da-net · Aug 5, 2005

Quote from jnash:

I use the free pivot calculator at: http://pitrading.com/pivot_points.htm

QUOTE]

THANK YOU! Great tool! Wish that it was available as a desktop application.

sidinuk · Aug 5, 2005

swingtrader64,

Thanks for your reply, I wonder if you could explain a little more how you use time and volume to confirm support and resistance points.

Cheers

SwingTrader64 · Aug 8, 2005

Sell Resistance Buy Support

Volume is simple. I use it to help determine the intra-day or daily trend. Follow the advance-decline ratio at both the NYSE and NASDAQ. Best for Pivot Point Traders is when the ratio is 2 to 1 or less in either direction. Indicating there may be no clear direction for the daily. Ratios for 3 or 4 to 1 may indicate the days direction. 5 to 1 or more clearly points to prices moving in that direction.

Time is when you break the trading day into 30, 60 or 90 minute sessions. Each session generally has it's on behavior. I use 90 zones. 1st period at the open generally establishes the daily trend or does not. 2nd period tends to rest and trade sideways. 3rd time frame tends to build momentum for the daily trend and the 4th tends to release momentum.

They work more often than not.

SwingTrader64

guy2 · Aug 12, 2005

Quote from sidinuk:

Over the next few weeks I am going to see whether I can develop a mechanical trading system based around pivot points.
...
Does anyone use pivot points in their trading? Are they useful or just a waste of time?

How is the development of your mechanical system going? Are you up or down?

I did a simple back test on pivot points and posted my results here under the following title:
Do Pivot Points work?

One of the big problems with determining if pivot points work or not is subjectivity around where the market stops and how much it retraces.

For example, how much leeway do you give the support/resistance line? 1 tick? 5 ticks? 10 ticks?
And what sort of target do you expect to hit after that?

Pivots are extremely difficult to test because of the money management issues and determining if that line was in fact support or resistance.

The only unequivocable support/resistance lines during the day are the high and low of the day - assuming that neither of them are the open or closing price in a straight trend day.

Those are the only two points where the market truly did turn. That's why I used these 2 points in order to try and test the probability of success in using pivot points. If anybody can suggest another unambiguous way of testing these lines then I will try and run them through my back testing system and post the results for you.

I hope that this helps.

sidinuk · Aug 12, 2005

Interesting to see your study of pivot points v random points shows that pivot points do have a slight edge.

I'm just finishing off writing a backtesting module which I'll use to test various ideas over the next few weeks.