V.14:7 (294-297) Three Turns On The Pivot Point by William Greenspan

V.14:7 (294-297) Three Turns On The Pivot Point by William Greenspan

This floor trader updates his previous article on the pivot point technique with additional insight on how he uses the method for day trading S&P futures.

Several years ago, I wrote an article for STOCKS & COMMODITIES describing how professional floor traders use the pivot technique. Although the pivot technique I described works in all futures markets, it responds best to markets with a wide daily trading range, such as the Standard & Poor's 500 index, Treasury bonds, soybeans, wheat and corn. Since then, I have received many queries on how to incorporate the data from the after-hours electronic trading sessions into the pivot technique. I tried to ignore the significance of the electronic trading sessions because of the relatively low volume of contracts that are traded in such sessions compared with the regular day session. It has become apparent that this data should be incorporated into the pivot technique and that, under the right circumstances, it enhances the accuracy of this trading tool. I will also introduce other variations of the pivot technique and how to implement them into the pivot calculations.