A swing high is a local peak in price — a bar whose high is greater than the highs of the N bars immediately before and after it. The choice of N (the 'left' and 'right' look-back) controls how strict the definition is: N = 1 is a fractal, N = 3 or N = 5 is more selective.
Swing highs are the building blocks of every market-structure analysis: they define the highs that subsequent prices must break to confirm continuation, and the levels at which short stops are normally placed.
Because a swing high requires N bars to its right to confirm, it is always identified after the fact — a price that looks like a swing high in real time can still be invalidated if the next N bars print a higher high.
Example
With N = 3, a bar at price 52,000 is a swing high if the 3 bars before it and the 3 bars after it all printed highs below 52,000.
How Noon Barbari uses Swing high
Every concept here is implemented in the platform. Open the relevant docs or tool to see it in action.
Swing detection in the indicators →Related terms
- Market structure
Swing low
A local trough: a bar whose low is lower than the N bars on each side.
- Market structure
Higher high
A swing high that prints above the prior swing high — the signature of an uptrend.
- Market structure
Break of structure (BOS)
Price closing through a prior swing point in the direction of the existing trend.
- Market structure
Support
A price level where falling demand outpaces supply, halting or reversing declines.