Swing High/Low Detector: Trading Market Structure

Before indicators, there was structure: markets move in swings, and the sequence of swing highs and swing lows is the trend. The Swing High/Low Detector automates what price-action traders do by eye — it finds each local turning point and tracks the latest confirmed swing levels as tradeable lines.

How It Works

With a lookback of 3 (the default), a swing high is a bar whose high exceeds the 3 bars on each side; a swing low is the mirror. The indicator maintains:

• Swing High series: the most recent confirmed swing high level.
• Swing Low series: the most recent confirmed swing low level.
• New Swing High / New Swing Low events that fire the moment a new point confirms.

Why Structure Beats Lines on a Chart

• Uptrend = higher swing highs and higher swing lows.
• Downtrend = lower highs and lower lows.
• Break of structure — price closing beyond the last swing level against the trend — is often the earliest objective sign a trend is turning, well before a moving average crosses.

How to Trade It

1. Structure breakout. Go long when price closes above the last swing high; the market has printed a new higher high.

2. Trend-following stops. Trail your stop under each new higher swing low — you stay in until the structure that justified the trade is actually broken.

3. Range definition. The latest swing high and low frame the current range; trade the break or fade the edges depending on your regime filter.

Building It in Setup.Cash

Add the Swing High/Low Detector in the strategy builder and condition on price crossing the Swing High/Low series, or trigger on the New Swing events. It combines naturally with Fractals (a fixed-width version of the same concept) and Support/Resistance Zones, which cluster swings into zones.

Tuning

• Lookback 3: balanced sensitivity.
• Smaller (1–2): every minor wiggle counts — scalping structure.
• Larger (5–10): only significant swings — swing trading structure.

Structure is the skeleton every other signal hangs on. Backtest a structure-break entry against your current entry and compare.