Pivot point calculator for forex and gold

What each method computes

Every method starts from the previous period’s high, low and close, the previous day’s for daily pivots, and the range is the high minus the low.

• Classic, or floor: the pivot P = (high + low + close) ÷ 3. R1 = 2P minus the low and S1 = 2P minus the high; R2 and S2 sit one range above and below P; R3 = high + 2 × (P minus low) and S3 = low minus 2 × (high minus P).
• Woodie: P = (high + low + 2 × the current period’s open) ÷ 4, with R1 to S3 built as in the classic method and R4 and S4 one more range out. An older form weights the previous close instead of the open; leave the open empty and the calculator uses the close.
• Camarilla: levels around the previous close at 1.1 × the range divided by 12, 6, 4 and 2, giving R1 to R4 above and S1 to S4 below. The classic pivot is shown with them for reference.
• Fibonacci: the classic pivot, with levels at 38.2%, 61.8% and 100% of the range above and below it.

A worked example

The values loaded here are example gold prices: high 4,030.00, low 3,970.00 and close 4,015.00, a range of 600 pips, $60.00 of price. The classic method puts P at 4,005.00, R1 at 4,040.00, R2 at 4,065.00 and R3 at 4,100.00, with S1 at 3,980.00, S2 at 3,945.00 and S3 at 3,920.00. Camarilla puts R3 at 4,031.50 and S3 at 3,998.50, much closer to the close, and Fibonacci puts R1 at 4,027.92 and S1 at 3,982.08.

A convention, not a forecast

Pivot points are arithmetic on the previous period’s prices, a convention traders watch. Nothing on this page says price will stop, turn or break at any level, and the calculation cannot tell which level, if any, will matter on a given day. If you follow signals, the levels that count are the signal’s own entry, stop and targets; size every trade from its stop with the lot size calculator.

Which high, low and close to use

For daily pivots, take the previous day’s candle from your own platform. The forex and gold day has no single official close: brokers set their own server time, and a candle that ends at a different hour has a different high, low and close, so two charts can disagree on the same method for that reason alone. For weekly or monthly pivots, use the previous week’s or month’s candle in the same way.

The previous day’s high and low that these formulas start from are worth watching on their own: gold’s overnight range and the London session measures how often gold traded beyond them.

Questions

How are pivot points calculated?

The classic pivot is the average of the previous period’s high, low and close. The levels are set from it: R1 = 2 × pivot minus the low, S1 = 2 × pivot minus the high, and R2 and S2 one full range above and below the pivot.

What is the difference between classic, Woodie, Camarilla and Fibonacci pivots?

The pivot and the spacing. Woodie weights the open, or the close, twice in the pivot; Camarilla builds tight levels around the close from 1.1 times the range; Fibonacci spaces its levels at 38.2%, 61.8% and 100% of the range from the classic pivot.

Why do my chart’s pivots differ from these?

A different daily candle or a different formula under the same name. Brokers set their own server time, so the previous day’s high, low and close can differ, and charting tools name the methods differently: TradingView, for one, calls the floor method Traditional and uses Classic for a variant whose R3 is the pivot plus twice the range.

Do pivot points work on gold?

The arithmetic is the same for any market. Choose gold in the calculator so the levels show with two decimals and the distances in gold pips of $0.10. Whether a level matters on the day is not something the calculation can tell you.