I'm SO glad that somebody is asking this question!!!
Let me put it this way:
For some VERY obscure reason I started messing around with Pivots the last two or three weeks. WHY I do not know because the only trading systems that work for ME are Wilder's (as most of you know)!!! Anyway, of course, NOT being able to control myself, I decided to try to trade with Pivots again with DISASTROUS results!!! The MAIN reason is that with Pivots: you never know if you're going to get a bounce off of a Pivot or if price is going to simply shoot straight through as if the Pivot was not even there!!! THAT is why having a EXIT strategy with Pivot's is ALL IMPORTANT!!! Unfortuanately: MY EXIT 'strategy' was to hold on to the trades hoping that the price would come back to and move beyond the Pivot. Eventually MY EXIT 'strategy' became one of 'I cannot bleed any more money here'!!! I, of course, could NOT have chosen a worse time to try Pivots out again i.e. I was trading the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P and I'm sure I don't have to tell you that the volatility of these indices in the past few weeks has been nothing short of astounding!!! Needles to say: MY PIVOT EXIT 'strategy' cost me LOADS!!! So: it's 'back to Wilder'!!!
Having said that all: I'm keen to see what other people would use as an exit strategy for Pivots (JUST as a matter of interest because I'm done with Pivots for now again)!!! I did see daydreamer65's reply to this and I believe that is a common exit and TP strategy. I have a problem with it though i.e. the movements between Pivots can sometimes be REAL big which, of course, can results in REAL big losses. Then you have the ADDED problem of when do you get IN again once you've taken a loss at the next Pivot???
I must just add here: that even although I do not TRADE with Pivots (well, not unless I'm being 'gung ho' and idiotic) I always have the Pivots up on the charts of the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P Daily charts and what is intersting to note is the following (and I've been looking at these charts every day for two years now):
The MIDPOINTS between the Pivots appear to 'hold' more so than the MAIN Pivots. Also: the WEEKLY and MONTHLY Pivots and MIDPOINTS appear to 'hold' MUCH more so than the Daily Pivots. That's just an observation.
And for those of you who may not be aware: not all Pivots are 'created equal'. There are many different versions of Pivots around so beware. It would appear that the most commonly used Pivots are what are known as 'Floor Pivots' i.e. used by traders on the floor of the exchange. Having said that: the STANDARD Pivot Point calculation is different from this. There are also 'Camarilla Pivots' and 'DeMark Pivots' (to name two that currently come to mind).
Regards,
Dale.
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