1. Is it advisable to plot pivots on all the time frames b/4 commencing trade?
2. If we are to plot pivots on daily chart, how many days back should we go in plotting this. This same question applies to other charts. thank you.

Every new day before starting trading, plot next pivot points:
1. Daily pivots, based on the previous day data only(!).
2. Monthly pivots, based on previous month data only.
3. Optionally, weekly pivots, where you take data for the last week.

With all those pivot levels in place you can then switch to lower time frames (hourly, 15 min, 5 min etc) and trade there. You don't need to calculate any additional pivot points for small time frames.

I live in south africa, using meta trader software with an auto pivot piont calc in trading platform. i mainly trade the usd/jpy. how will the japanees market affect my pivots and is early morning trading then better for me.
thank you

Begin trading around 8-9 am your local time, which is going to be the early morning for EST time zone.
Japanese market won't affect your pivot points.

hello
Please what is the best way to determine the daily trend with pivot points?
thanks

If market opens above daily pivot Point level, but below R1 (first resistance) level we are uptrend bias.
If market opens above R1 level, or above R2 - expect price to come back to Pivot Point and retest it. If Pivot point stands strong, we are uptrend bias, if it fails - downtrend begins.

Apply same logic to the market opening on daily charts below Pivot Point.

Your Pivot information is great! One question - when you say the early bird gets the worm, what time are you talking - when the market opens on a new day or when we wake up here in the states. I usually trade 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. West Coast time.

Thanks!
Thomas

Hi Thomas,
Early birds are in our opinion and from our trading experience are the traders, who start trading from the first hours of the day, e.g. literally from midnight Eastern Time. The point of such an early start lies in the fat that with Pivot points being set, the market will test them for the first time quite early. What is also good about such early pivot point trades is that the accuracy of the price following Pivot points is incredibly high.

Trading the system I noted that many times after I made sell/buy order according to strategy rules, PP, R1, S1 level was broken for more than 10-20 pips then price reverses and go to another direction like on this page http://www.fxpivot-points.com/pivot_points_strategy/04/?page=3. How possibly to avoid false orders. should I use bigger SL( for example at midpoints), or check the trend on 3-4 hour time frame and follow the trend ???
Andris

Hello Andris,
I must admit that both your ideas are good. I think the concept given on pivots website is a basic one to follow. You may certainly add a rule of identifying a trend. 3 or 4 hour charts would be ideal for trend confirmation while trading off of 15 min charts. Also setting a stop loss order at midpoints may help to improve the win/loss ratio, however, when midpoints are quite distant it would be logical to identify closer stop targets.

Let me also add from my own experience, that watching news time makes difference in Forex trading. When economic indicators data is released and it carries high impact factor the market will react to it breaking through or bouncing from pivot levels it previously clustered at. In other words, if you spotted market slowing down and tightening its trading range at any pivot level and you also know that some high value news are about to hit the air, it is time to abandon you strategy rules and analyze market reaction as is, cut losses quickly if you are on the wrong side and even refrain from taking new trades in case your aren't strong at fundamental analysis yet.

I live in Minnesota USA,,I want to know how to setup my pivot point on my local time zone..or should use EST time,,,but Where or how to find out the market closed on my time zone..

It would certainly be better to use EST time zone.
You can find a broker whose trading platform runs on EST time, for example, IBFX, OANDA.

If you decide to stick to your local time zone to calculate pivots, you'd need to make calculations manually.

I live in lagos nigeria i normally use the auto pivot software in my meta4 which contains the daliy, weekly and monthly pivot lines and resistance and support just this week according the the pivot rules i did place a trade at the begining which the new day opened at above the daily pivot lines which i did go long but it went against me for me trading day which amount to a lose for me for the day,Please can you explain what happeaned or may be i did not cheak out the monthly and weekly pivot point for the day please get back to me.Thanks

Emmy

http://www.fxpivot-points.com/ will answer the questions about trading with Pivot points. The fact that price reversed and went against you is not your or Pivots faults, these things happen all the time, since pivot points, like any Forex tool is never 100% loss-proof.

In addition, you may check what time zone your platform and autopivot software works on. GMT or EST are the preferred time zones, other - not so much and can cause your pivots be less relevant to what major FOrex traders see on their charts.