Market Structure

Swing High / Swing Low

A local price extreme, typically a bar with lower highs on both sides (swing high) or higher lows on both sides (swing low).
Also known as: Swing PointPivot HighPivot Low

A Swing High is a bar whose high is greater than the highs of the N bars before and after it; a Swing Low is the mirror image. The "strictness" parameter N determines how prominent a swing must be, N=2 or N=3 for intraday, N=5 for daily structure. Swing points are the raw input for most market-structure analysis: sequences of them define trends, and breaks of them trigger BOS or CHOCH signals.

Not all swing points carry equal weight. "Significant" swings are those that initiated meaningful directional moves and are visible on higher timeframes; minor swings are noise. Experienced traders typically mark only 2–4 relevant swings per session, ignoring the dense cluster of minor pivots. Swing highs and lows also serve as natural stop-placement levels and as liquidity magnets, the stops above a swing high form the "buy-side liquidity" that institutional algorithms target in sweeps.

More Market Structure concepts

Break of Structure
A close beyond the most recent significant swing point that confirms trend continuation.
Change of Character
The first lower low in an uptrend or first higher high in a downtrend, signaling a potenti…
Market Structure
The sequence of swing highs and swing lows that defines whether a market is trending or ra…