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Classic, Fibonacci, Camarilla and Woodie levels from H/L/C.
Pivot points are the oldest form of automated support and resistance. Floor traders in the futures pits needed a set of reference prices they could compute by hand before the open, from nothing more than yesterday's high, low and close — and the levels they produced are still on most professional screens today.
Enter the previous session's three prices and choose a method. The calculator gives you the central pivot with three levels of support and resistance, the distance from the close to each level in pips, and a side-by-side comparison of all four methods.
Central pivot (PP)
1.08536
Classic method
Session range
86.8 pips
High − low = 0.00868
Close vs pivot
+7.2 pips
Closed above the pivot — bullish bias
| Level | Price | Distance from close |
|---|---|---|
| R3 | 1.09874 | +126.6 pips |
| R2 | 1.09404 | +79.6 pips |
| R1 | 1.09006 | +39.8 pips |
| Pivot (PP) | 1.08536 | -7.2 pips |
| S1 | 1.08138 | -47.0 pips |
| S2 | 1.07668 | -94.0 pips |
| S3 | 1.07270 | -133.8 pips |
The original floor-trader formula. The pivot is the average of high, low and close, and each level steps out by the full session range.
| Level | Classic | Fibonacci | Camarilla | Woodie |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R3 | 1.09874 | 1.09404 | 1.08847 | 1.09910 |
| R2 | 1.09404 | 1.09072 | 1.08767 | 1.09422 |
| R1 | 1.09006 | 1.08868 | 1.08688 | 1.09042 |
| PP | 1.08536 | 1.08536 | 1.08536 | 1.08554 |
| S1 | 1.08138 | 1.08204 | 1.08528 | 1.08174 |
| S2 | 1.07668 | 1.08000 | 1.08449 | 1.07686 |
| S3 | 1.07270 | 1.07668 | 1.08369 | 1.07306 |
Where two or more methods cluster within a few pips of each other, that price band tends to matter more than any single level on its own.
Calculations use PipDig's static demo rate table (snapshot 2026-08-01). These are illustrative mid prices for education only — they are not live quotes, and your broker's spread, commission and swap will change the real result.
Every method starts from the same idea: the average of the previous session's high, low and close is a fair estimate of where the market considers value to be. That average is the pivot point. Support and resistance levels are then projected outwards from it using the session range.
Classic, Fibonacci and Camarilla all define the pivot as (H + L + C) ÷ 3. Woodie uses (H + L + 2C) ÷ 4, double-weighting the close on the argument that where a session finishes says more about sentiment than where it traded intraday. In practice the two pivots are close together unless the session closed near an extreme, in which case Woodie's sits noticeably nearer the close.
Classic mirrors the previous range around the pivot: R1 is the pivot plus the distance down to the low, S1 is the pivot minus the distance up to the high, and R2/S2 step out by the full range. Fibonacci replaces those steps with 38.2%, 61.8% and 100% of the range. Camarilla takes a different route entirely, anchoring on the close and scaling the range by 1.1 divided by 12, 6, 4 and 2 — which produces a tight inner band (R1/S1) and a wide outer band (R4/S4) often used as a breakout trigger.
The single most useful signal is where the price sits relative to the pivot itself. Trading above it is conventionally read as a bullish bias for the session, below it as bearish, and the calculator shows that distance in pips so you can judge how far the market has already travelled. The second most useful is confluence: when the Classic R1, the Fibonacci R1 and a Fibonacci retracement from a recent swing all sit within a few pips of each other, that band is worth far more attention than any single line.
Pivots came from exchange-traded futures, where the daily high, low and close are unambiguous. Spot Forex trades around the clock, so the “close” is whatever time your broker rolls the server day. This means pivot levels vary slightly between brokers. Pick one data source and stay with it rather than switching to whichever version fits your bias.
Classic
PP = (H + L + C) ÷ 3 · R1 = 2PP − L · S1 = 2PP − H · R2 = PP + (H − L) · S2 = PP − (H − L) · R3 = H + 2(PP − L) · S3 = L − 2(H − PP)Fibonacci
PP = (H + L + C) ÷ 3 · R1/S1 = PP ± 0.382(H − L) · R2/S2 = PP ± 0.618(H − L) · R3/S3 = PP ± (H − L)Camarilla
PP = (H + L + C) ÷ 3 · R1/S1 = C ± (H − L) x 1.1 ÷ 12 · R2/S2 = C ± (H − L) x 1.1 ÷ 6 · R3/S3 = C ± (H − L) x 1.1 ÷ 4 · R4/S4 = C ± (H − L) x 1.1 ÷ 2Camarilla anchors on the close rather than the pivot, which is why its inner levels sit much closer to price.
Woodie
PP = (H + L + 2C) ÷ 4 · R1 = 2PP − L · S1 = 2PP − H · R2 = PP + (H − L) · S2 = PP − (H − L)Double-weighting the close pulls the pivot towards where the session actually finished.
Match the timeframe you trade. Day traders use the previous full trading day, which in Forex means the 24 hours ending at your broker's daily close (usually 5pm New York). Swing traders use the previous week, and position traders the previous month. The key is consistency: because Forex has no single official close, two brokers on different server times will produce slightly different daily pivots from the same market.
They are not predictive in any deep sense. What makes them useful is that they are objective, widely watched and identical for everyone using the same session data, so a great many market participants are looking at the same prices at the same time. That shared attention is what gives the levels their tendency to attract reactions. Treat them as a map of where other traders are likely to act, not as a signal in their own right.
Classic is the default and the most widely watched, so it is the best starting point. Fibonacci places the intermediate levels at retracement ratios and suits traders who already use Fibonacci analysis. Camarilla produces tight bands around the close and is popular with mean-reversion and range traders. Woodie weights the close more heavily and reacts faster when a session finishes near its extreme. Run all four in the comparison table and pay particular attention to prices where several methods cluster.
The two standard approaches are reversion and breakout. Reversion traders fade moves into R1 or S1 with a stop beyond the next level out, expecting price to rotate back towards the pivot. Breakout traders wait for a decisive close beyond R1 or S1 and treat the level as new support or resistance, targeting the level after it. Whichever you use, place the stop by structure and then size the position with the position size calculator rather than guessing.