Swing High / Swing Low

Glossary · Technical Analysis

A swing high is a bar whose high is higher than the bars on either side of it; a swing low is a bar whose low is lower than its neighbours. They are the pivots the market turned on. Strung together they define trend, and clustered they become support and resistance — every level starts as a swing.

"Every support level was a swing low once. The market remembers where it turned, because that is where the trapped positions are."

How many bars on each side counts as a swing is the only parameter, and it sets the timeframe of the structure: one bar catches every wiggle, five bars catch the moves that matter on a 4h chart. Our level engine uses three. A swing needs the bars after it to confirm, which means the most recent candidate is never confirmed until three more bars close — the reason 'forming' and 'confirmed' are different states on our divergence board.

Swings carry the positions: the low of a swing is where sellers gave up and buyers won, so the stops of the buyers who entered there sit just below it. That is why swing lows are hunted before a real move up, and why a stop placed a few ticks under the obvious swing is the first thing a market takes. Put it beyond the structure by a margin the volatility justifies — we use 0.7 ATR.

Divergences drawn between swing points

Related jargon

Questions

What is Swing High / Swing Low in crypto trading?

A swing high is a bar whose high is higher than the bars on either side of it; a swing low is a bar whose low is lower than its neighbours. They are the pivots the market turned on. Strung together they define trend, and clustered they become support and resistance — every level starts as a swing.

How would a trader say it?

Every support level was a swing low once. The market remembers where it turned, because that is where the trapped positions are.

Part of the Crypto Jargon glossary — every term, decoded the way a trader would say it.

Crypto Jargon

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