Camarilla Pivots: Formula, H3 and H4 Levels, and How Often Price Reacts

Camarilla pivot points are a set of support and resistance levels computed once per session from the previous session’s high, low and close. They are tighter than standard pivot points: the four main levels all sit within about half of yesterday’s range from yesterday’s close, so price meets them on most days. Intraday traders use them as a map of where to fade a move and where to follow it.

Camarilla pivot formula

TradingView’s documentation of its pivot point indicator lists the Camarilla type with a constant of 1.1 applied to the previous range. With H, L and C the previous period’s high, low and close:

The levels are symmetric around the previous close, not around the classic pivot (H + L + C) / 3. H1 and H2, L1 and L2 sit within about 0.18 of the range from the close, and Camarilla guides rarely trade them. H5 and L5 use a different formula and appear only in some versions: H5 is the close multiplied by the ratio of the high to the low, which puts it at least one full range above the close, always beyond H4.

The chart above draws the same levels on hourly Bitcoin bars for October 26 to 28, 2026, each day’s levels computed from the previous UTC day. On October 28, hourly highs crossed H3 at 08:00 and again from 19:00, and hourly lows reached L3 at 13:00 and 16:00. The chart below shows the daily version on the S&P 500 ETF, where each day’s levels come from the previous daily bar.

How to trade Camarilla pivots

LuxAlgo’s summary of the method describes two plays.

• Fade H3 and L3. Price that opens between L3 and H3 is treated as range-bound: a test of H3 is a short, a test of L3 a long, with the stop beyond H4 or L4 and a target of rotation across the range.
• Follow H4 and L4. A push through H4 or L4 is read as a breakout into a trend day: long above H4, short below L4, with H5 or L5 as the target. A quick return inside the levels is the usual warning of a false breakout.
• Trend days break the fade. The same summary notes that the fade fails on trend days, so most playbooks wait for price to reject the level rather than act on a touch alone; trend days are the case the H4 and L4 breakout is meant to catch.

LuxAlgo also uses the open to choose between the two: an open between L3 and H3 favors the fade, an open beyond H4 or L4, or a quick push past them, favors continuation. As with any support and resistance level, the price is a zone, not a line.

How often price reaches the levels: 33 years of data

We computed the daily Camarilla levels for every session of the S&P 500 ETF from February 1, 1993 to October 28, 2026 (8,494 days) and of Bitcoin from August 18, 2017 to October 28, 2026 (3,359 days), each from the previous daily bar. This is a description of how price behaves around the levels, not a full backtest: no stops, no targets, no costs.

The levels are touched most days because they are close to the prior close: H3 is only 0.275 of yesterday’s range above it, H4 0.55. A level touched two days in three is not a rare event that needs explaining.

The two plays, tested the simplest way, give the following. For the fade, we sell at H3 (or at the open, if the open is already above it) and buy back at the close, and do the opposite at L3. For the breakout, we buy at H4 and sell at the close, and do the opposite at L4.

On the S&P 500 ETF, both plays averaged less than a hundredth of a percent per trade, before any commission or spread. On Bitcoin, the fade won slightly more often than it lost but lost more on its losers, and the breakout averaged +0.234% a trade on fewer than half winners, so its winners were on average larger than its losers. Neither is an edge you could trade after costs on this evidence. Exits at the close are a simplification: real stops and intraday targets can change the picture in either direction. Our bench methodology explains how we test chart patterns, with random entries as the baseline this simple count does not have.

Where Camarilla pivots come from

LuxAlgo writes that the method is “usually credited to a bond trader in 1989”, without naming him. Some websites name the trader; we found no primary source, book or dated document confirming any name. LuxAlgo also notes that the H5 and L5 formulas differ across sources, which is one reason this page follows the version documented by TradingView.

Camarilla versus standard pivot points

• Center. Standard pivots are built around (H + L + C) / 3; Camarilla levels are built around the previous close.
• Width. In TradingView’s traditional formula, R2 and S2 sit a full range from the pivot, P ± (H − L); Camarilla H4 and L4 sit 0.55 of the range from the close, and H3 and L3 0.275, so they are reached far more often.
• Use. Standard pivots are read as targets and supports for the day; Camarilla levels are read as a range to fade inside H3 and L3, and a breakout signal beyond H4 and L4.

Other level-based tools are listed in technical indicators, including pivot point high low.