A pivot point calculator turns three numbers — the prior period's high, low and close — into a central level and a ladder of levels above and below it, using a published formula. That is all it does. These are conventions with no predictive claim attached, they describe past prices, and past behaviour does not predict future prices. No level on this page is support that will hold, resistance that will cap, an entry, or a signal.
Arb Digital publishes this alongside the RSI calculator for Wilder's momentum oscillator and the moving average calculator for simple, weighted and exponential smoothing. Those two consume a whole series; this page consumes exactly one completed bar. That difference matters, because a pivot set is recomputed from scratch each period rather than carrying history forward.
What This Pivot Point Calculator Does
It implements four named conventions and shows all of them from the same inputs.
Classic, also called floor-trader or standard pivots, is the original open-outcry convention. The pivot is the arithmetic mean of high, low and close, and the levels are built by reflecting the high and low around it.
Fibonacci uses the same pivot but spaces the levels at 38.2%, 61.8% and 100% of the prior period's range. Those percentages come from a number sequence, not from any property of markets, and there is no established causal link between them and price.
Camarilla ignores the pivot when building levels and instead spreads eight levels around the close using the fractions 1.1/12, 1.1/6, 1.1/4 and 1.1/2 of the range. It produces a much tighter inner ladder than the other three.
Woodie weights the close twice in the pivot, so the pivot sits nearer the close than the classic version. Two variants are in print — one using the prior close, one using the current period's open — and this page computes either.
Because all four run from identical inputs, the spread between them is visible immediately. That spread is the honest information here.
How to Use It
- Use one completed period for all three prices. The high, low and close must come from the same bar. Mixing yesterday's high with last week's close produces arithmetic that means nothing.
- Decide the period before you start. Daily pivots use yesterday's daily bar, weekly pivots use last week's weekly bar, monthly pivots the prior month. Changing period changes every level, and a "pivot point" quoted without a period is not a number.
- Check whether your data source includes extended hours. A high or low set outside the main session changes the range and therefore every level. Two people using different session definitions will get different pivots from the same instrument on the same day.
- Compare the four methods before adopting one. If a level looks meaningful under one convention and not the others, that is a fact about the formula rather than about the market.
- Read the current-price field as arithmetic only. It reports the distance from the pivot. It says nothing about direction.
The Formula / How It's Calculated
Write H for the prior high, L for the prior low, C for the prior close and R = H − L for the range.
Classic: P = (H + L + C) ÷ 3. Then R1 = 2P − L, S1 = 2P − H, R2 = P + R, S2 = P − R, R3 = H + 2(P − L) and S3 = L − 2(H − P).
Fibonacci: P = (H + L + C) ÷ 3. Then R1 = P + 0.382R, R2 = P + 0.618R, R3 = P + R, and the supports mirror them: S1 = P − 0.382R, S2 = P − 0.618R, S3 = P − R.
Camarilla: R1 = C + 1.1R ÷ 12, R2 = C + 1.1R ÷ 6, R3 = C + 1.1R ÷ 4, R4 = C + 1.1R ÷ 2, with the supports subtracting the same amounts from C. The pivot is quoted as the classic (H + L + C) ÷ 3.
Woodie: P = (H + L + 2C) ÷ 4, or (H + L + 2×Open) ÷ 4 in the open-price variant. Then R1 = 2P − L, S1 = 2P − H, R2 = P + R and S2 = P − R.
Worked example, matching the values the page loads with: H = 110, L = 90, C = 105, so R = 20.
Classic gives P = 305 ÷ 3 = 101.6667, R1 = 203.3333 − 90 = 113.3333, S1 = 203.3333 − 110 = 93.3333, R2 = 121.6667, S2 = 81.6667, R3 = 110 + 2 × 11.6667 = 133.3333 and S3 = 90 − 2 × 8.3333 = 73.3333.
Fibonacci shares the pivot and gives R1 = 101.6667 + 7.64 = 109.3067, R2 = 114.0267, R3 = 121.6667, with supports at 94.0267, 89.3067 and 81.6667.
Camarilla builds from the close: R1 = 105 + 1.8333 = 106.8333, R2 = 108.6667, R3 = 110.5000, R4 = 116.0000, with supports at 103.1667, 101.3333, 99.5000 and 94.0000.
Woodie weights the close twice: P = (200 + 210) ÷ 4 = 102.5000, R1 = 115.0000, S1 = 95.0000, R2 = 122.5000 and S2 = 82.5000.
Four Methods, Four Answers, One Bar of Data
The worked example above deserves a second look, because it contains the argument.
From identical inputs, the first resistance level is 113.33 under classic, 109.31 under Fibonacci, 106.83 under Camarilla and 115.00 under Woodie. That is a spread of more than eight points on a twenty-point range — 41% of the entire prior period. The pivot itself ranges from 101.67 to 102.50 depending only on how many times the close is counted.
None of these is more correct than the others, because there is no external fact they are approximating. They are formulas, and each is internally consistent. If a market genuinely reacted at a level, only one of the four would find it, and which one would be a coincidence of arithmetic.
The one property that is real is anchoring: these formulas are widely published and widely watched, so many participants are looking at similar numbers. Any tendency for prices to pause near them is more plausibly a crowding effect than a property of value. That mechanism is also self-limiting, since it depends on enough people using the same convention on the same period — which the spread above shows is far from guaranteed. The NBER working paper Foundations of Technical Analysis lays out what would actually be required to test claims of this kind.
Period, Session and Data Definitions Change Everything
Pivot levels look precise to four decimal places and are extremely sensitive to definitional choices that never appear in the formula.
Session boundaries. For instruments that trade nearly around the clock, the "daily" high and low depend on where you cut the day. A futures contract with a 23-hour session and an equity index with a 6.5-hour session produce different ranges from the same calendar day.
Extended hours. Including pre-market and after-hours prints often widens the range materially, which pushes R2, R3, S2 and S3 further out while barely moving the pivot. Two people can disagree by several percent while both being right about their own data.
Settlement versus last trade. In futures the settlement price is a calculated figure, not necessarily the final trade. Using one where the convention expects the other shifts every Camarilla and Woodie level, because both weight the close heavily.
Splits and adjustments. A price series adjusted for splits or dividends will not reproduce the levels a trader saw at the time. If you are checking a historical claim, use unadjusted prices for the bar in question.
Investor.gov's guide to types of orders covers how market, limit and stop orders execute, and why several different "prices" exist for the same instrument at the same moment.
What These Levels Are Not
Being explicit here is more useful than another formula.
They are not support and resistance in any tested sense. The words are convention. The arithmetic contains no information about order flow, liquidity or the willingness of anyone to transact at a price. A level being computed does not mean anyone is defending it.
They are not forecasts. Every input is from a period that has already finished. Nothing in the calculation looks forward, and the levels for tomorrow are fully determined by data that already exists.
They are not risk management. Placing an order at a computed level does not size a position or bound a loss. Position sizing is a separate exercise, and the risk reward ratio calculator and the margin trading calculator deal with those mechanics rather than with levels.
They are not comparable across instruments. A level is in the units of the instrument, so a pivot on a $30 stock and a pivot on a $3,000 index are not on the same scale. Expressing distances as a percentage of range, which the results panel does, is the only comparison that travels.
Arb Digital builds tools, calculators and content systems where the arithmetic is checked and the caveats are stated — which is what keeps a page useful once people rely on it.
See Web Design Services Talk to Arb DigitalCommon Mistakes to Avoid
- Mixing periods — the high, low and close must all come from the same completed bar, or every level below is arithmetic without a referent.
- Quoting a pivot without naming the method — classic, Fibonacci, Camarilla and Woodie give four different answers from the same bar, so the number alone identifies nothing.
- Ignoring session definition — including or excluding extended hours changes the range and therefore every outer level.
- Treating a level as a place price must stop — the formula contains no information about who is willing to trade where, and no level is support that will hold.
- Using split-adjusted history to check a past level — adjusted prices will not reproduce what anyone actually saw at the time.
Related Free Tools From Arb Digital
Run the underlying series through the moving average calculator or the RSI calculator for the other two arithmetic indicators. For measuring what actually happened rather than where levels sat, use the max drawdown calculator, the stock return calculator and the standard deviation calculator. The risk reward ratio calculator covers the position-sizing arithmetic that levels do not. Everything else sits in the free online tools hub.
Frequently Asked Questions
It is a level computed from the prior period's high, low and close using a published formula, together with a ladder of levels derived from the same range. The classic version takes the arithmetic mean of the three prices. It is a convention applied to completed data, not a property of the market.
None is more correct than the others, because there is no external quantity they are estimating. Classic, Fibonacci, Camarilla and Woodie are four different formulas that produce four different sets of levels from identical inputs. Quoting a level without naming the method does not identify a number.
The formulas make no predictive claim and this page makes none. Any tendency to pause near a widely published level is more plausibly explained by many participants watching the same numbers than by a property of value, and that explanation depends on agreement about method and period that often does not exist.
Whatever period you intend the levels to describe. Daily pivots use the prior daily bar, weekly pivots the prior week, monthly the prior month. All three prices must come from the same completed bar, and changing the period changes every level in the set.
Because it weights the close twice and divides by four rather than three, which pulls the pivot toward the close. Two variants exist in print: one using the prior close and one using the current period's open. This calculator computes either, and they give different pivots.
From ratios associated with the Fibonacci number sequence — 0.382, 0.618 and 1.000 applied to the prior range. They are a mathematical sequence with no established causal link to price behaviour. Using them here is a convention, and the resulting levels differ from those of the other three methods.
Usually the session definition or the price field. Including extended-hours trading widens the range and moves the outer levels; using settlement rather than last trade shifts every Camarilla and Woodie level. Check the method, the period and the data definition before assuming a calculation error.
This page makes no recommendation about order placement. Levels are arithmetic derived from one completed bar and contain no information about position size or the loss a position can produce. Sizing and risk limits are a separate exercise from computing a level.
This tool performs an arithmetic calculation on data you supply. It is not investment advice, not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any security, and no level it produces is a signal or a price target. Technical indicators describe past prices only. Decisions about your money should involve a licensed financial adviser regulated in your jurisdiction.
