Market structure

Swing highs and swing lows

A swing high is a point where price stops rising and turns down, standing above the candles on either side. A swing low is the opposite. Trend, support and resistance all depend on marking these points correctly.

The dots mark the swing high and swing low found with N = 2; the brackets show the candles compared on each side. The circled minor dip only counts as a swing low if N = 1 is chosen.

What are swing highs and lows?

Every candle has a high and a low, but most of them are just points along the way. A swing high is where price ends a rise and turns down: it is higher than the highs of the candles before and after it. A swing low is where price ends a decline and turns up, lower than the candles on either side.

Swing highs and lows mark where price changed direction. That is why reading trends, pullbacks and support or resistance zones always starts from these points.

A measurable definition

Choose a number N. A common rule is that a candle's high must be above the highs of the N candles on each side. Values between 2 and 5 are often used; the drawing uses N = 2. This is a choice, and there is no single correct value.
Check for a swing high. If the candle's high is above the highs of the N candles to its left and the N candles to its right, it is a swing high.
Check for a swing low the same way. If the candle's low is below the lows of the N candles on each side, it is a swing low.
Wait for the candles on the right to close. A swing high is only confirmed once the N candles to its right have closed. The high of the latest candle is a candidate, not a swing high, because nothing has formed to its right yet.

Significant and minor swings

Significant swings are where price clearly turned after a clear move. They are the reference for the trend and the structure.
Minor swings are short pauses inside a larger move. They count as swings with a small N and disappear as N grows.
A point gains weight from the size of the move before it, how sharply price turned, and whether price reacts there again later.

Not every candle's high is a swing high. Counting every small wiggle buries the structure in noise and makes the trend look as if it changes far more often than it does.

What it shows, what it does not prove

What it shows

Where price changed direction on this timeframe
The reference points needed to read the trend and the structure
Levels where price has reacted before

What it does not prove

That price will react the same way when it returns to that level
That a point near the latest candle will become a lasting swing high or low
That the chosen N is more correct than another

The MarketLevelMap view

How it relates to zones

Support and resistance zones often form around significant swing highs and lows. When price turns in the same area several times, that area becomes a zone.

A swing high looks like a single price, but turns in the same area happen a few units apart. That is why it is more realistic to read a swing high as a band where wicks and bodies cluster, rather than as a single line.

Often confused with

For general information only. Not investment advice.Last updated: 23 October 2026