What is a swing?
Learn more · the details, worked example and common mistakes
Think of walking over hills. Each climb and each descent is a swing; the hilltops and the valley floors between them are the swing highs and swing lows.
The rule only looks at candle highs for a swing high and candle lows for a swing low. Bodies and colours don't matter.
Why 2 on each side? One candle sticking out is easy to find and happens all the time. Beating 2 neighbours on each side means price really did turn there.
Worked example: the candle highs run 20,016.00, 20,020.00, 20,026.00, 20,024.50, 20,021.00. The middle one, 20,026.00, beats both sides: a swing high.
Common mistakes
- Only checking the candles right beside it. The rule needs 2 on each side.
- Using the bodies. Swing highs use the wick tips (the candle highs), swing lows the bottom tips (the candle lows).
- Counting a tie. Exactly the same price means it's not a swing.
Traders talk about swings all day: "price is heading for the last swing high", "it bounced off the swing low". Learn to spot them by eye first; the 2-candle rule is how CandleLab makes that eye exact. It's a common convention (some call the 5-candle pattern a fractal), but traders use other lookbacks too, and the rule also marks small peaks inside a bigger move as swings.