I am off and running and ready to start a profitable year. The topic of the day is pivot points which are, to some, the holy grail of investing. Generally speaking pivots are calculated in the following manner:
R2 = P + (H – L) = P + (R1 – S1)
R1 = (P x 2) – L
P = (H + L + C) / 3
S1 = (P x 2) – H
S2 = P – (H – L) = P – (R1 – S1)
Where….”S” represents the support levels, “R” the resistance levels and “P” the pivot point. High, low and close are represented by the “H”, “L” and “C” respectively. Note that the high, low and close in 24-hour markets (such as forex) are often calculated using New York closing time (4pm EST) on a 24-hour cycle. Limited markets (such as the NYSE) simply use the high, low and close from the day’s standard trading hours.
As for my own opinion, I find pivot points of great value on certain days, and of zero value on others. So, if you are going to be a pivot point man or woman, you will need to develop a methodology for determining the accuracy of your own pivot point system.
As for me, I generally chart the pivot points each day, and see what relevance they may have to my own trading techniques.
Closely related to pivots are support and resistance, and this is where the rubber meets the road for me. As many of you are aware, I base most of my trading on chaos theory, which is to say that there are patterns within patterns, but the frequency of these patterns within patterns is random. Ah, that certainly is a mouthful and I am sure that many of you are shaking your heads and wondering I am actually saying. To put it quite simply, I believe trying to apply linear charting systems to a non-linear market is futile. There is nothing, absolutely nothing static about the method in which the market trades.
I am sure the random walkers are standing and applauding at this point, but you can all sit down. Because the most recent market meltdown pretty well puts to rest any notion that the markets are efficient, or that all possible information can be Incorporated into any priced equity. Of course, the standard argument would sound something like this, at least from the Random Walk Cabal….”those equity bubbles are anomalies that occur from time to time…” But if they were aberrations, every member of the risk arbitrage community would have resolved those market inconsistencies within hours. No these bubbles, or masses of mispriced assets suggest that random walking in a fine theory, but nearly useless in actual practice. The creation of bubbles in the market has occurred in a variety of conditions and markets for more than 400 years. Whether it has been tulips, or gold, or Internet stocks, we tend to overbuy and oversell, usually against all logic.
However, support and resistance are of great importance to me…but it is important to remember that support is not static either, and is constantly morphing into new support and resistance levels as the days progresses. What? Yes, I know that most traders strike a line here and a line there and establish there support and resistance based upon those initial highs and lows. Some then apply Fibbonacci retracements to further establish support and resistance. Ah…erm…well….Fibonacci analysis is certainly interesting at some level, but the actual levels of correlation, proven by hundreds of scientific studies, is sketchy at best especially when charting price reversals. Since many of the numbers in the Fibonacci sequence are quite close together, it isn’t hard to point out that the market turned just past a 50% retracement, or just short of a 61.8 retracement….but the fact of the matter remains that super accurate predictions with Fibbonacci numbers is not as accurate as some practitioners would have you believe.
At once point in my career I drew in dynamic support and resistance lines as I traded, but I have found that a program called Decision Bar does an excellent job of pin pointing the ever changing support and resistance lines and have learned to rely on it’s accuracy and save myself a wealth of time and effort….but that’s not the entire story…which we will discuss tomorrow.
So, for today….I have tried to point out the problems of charting non-linear systems with linear charting tools, and suggest that non linear charting systems can greatly enhance you trading success.
