Andrews Pitchfork (Median Line)

Sorry - also, when I see many of these pitchforks being draw in charts by various traders, sometimes I see them using swing highs or lows that are NOT the nearest swing high or swing low.

Why is that so?

Thanks!

The Schiff places the origination of the fork (median set) handle at 50% of price, P0 to P1, on a vertical axis with P0.
The Modified Schiff uses 50% of both time and price P0, P1.
Most prefer the Modified version as it is actually the natural channel formed from the 3 fractals, P0,P1,P2 with the 50% retrace marked.
The second question about picking pivots is looking for the best frequencies or hits and not curb-fitting your median lines.
Watch video to further understand.
http://vimeo.com/4982412

Eur/Usd daily broke the quartile line on the forth try today.

(AlexC just replied but I already typed this in so I may as well post it).

Anyone finding this thread would be well served by reading at least the first 15-20 pages of the thread, and perhaps the last 15-20 as well. The answers are there, however as there is some confusion about pitchfork variations, I'll answer that directly.

One of Andrews' students (named Schiff) made a suggestion to him. If one first draws an Andrews fork using 3 pivots, and if these PF points are pt1, pt2 and pt3, then the SCHIFF variation is to move the pt1 price to half-way between the price of the original-pt1 and pt2. The pt1 time is un-changed. To emphasize the definition along with the name, it may help to label the fork "Schiff (50% price)".

Andrews liked it but upon further reflection, he proposed the MODIFIED-SCHIFF variation which is to move pt1 such that the new Medianline passes through the exact point that is 50% of BOTH price & time between the original-pt1 and pt2. (In MT4, draw a trendline from pt1-pt2. Select the trendline. The little bubble in the middle is the midpoint through which the Mod.Schiff ML should pass). It is also readily observed that if you draw a line from pt1 to pt3, this line is either the UML (or LML) of a Mod.Schiff fork, and it has the exact same slope as the Mod.Schiff ML.

To be clear with labels, one might use: Mod.Schiff (50/50 price&time).

There are a few people who think these definitions are backwards, but I can assure you that these are in agreement with Tim Morge, Greg Fisher and others. Even so, in conversation it is often true that someone might say "Schiff" when the actually mean "Modified Schiff". The confusion also isn't helped by the fact that a lot of commercial tools that provide built in fork variations have their meanings reversed as well. The same is true in at least one MT4 indicator that I looked at.

My personal preference is to always use the major swing high-or-low for all my PF pivots. However, there's no denying that sometimes using an adjacent minor pivot appears to have better "resonance" (aka "frequency") as price action unfolds. Usually when a minor pivot is being used, it is often a change to pt2 or pt3. Rather that use minor pivots for either of these two, I sometimes see essentially the same good resonance just by shifting pt1 to a point in space, nearby the 1st pivot but not on it. This kind of fork would be known as an "APO" (Alternate Point of Origin) pitchfork. The trouble with shifts to minor pivots is that while the fork may have good resonance, I've seen where the natural fork based on major pivots may not appear to have exact resonance -- until it does. PA may overshoot a line on a minor pivot variation and bounce exactly on the major-pivot fork... but if you haven't drawn both, you may not see it; and if you DO draw both, your chart is more cluttered. I find that I can draw the regular fork based on major pivots and I can visually spot the places where PA came close to but did not touch a line. Well if it did that on one place in the chart, one can expect a higher probability that a similar over/under-shoot may occur on other lines, in the SAME DIRECTION as other over/under-shoots in the past. If you visually spot this occuring, then briefly try shifting pt1 to an APO and see if it is resonating well.

Hi Alex,

Similar to your EU chart 24 hours ago, I saw the EU H1 Andrews fork climbing the LML and bought it at the green arrow retest for a small gain. The hoped-for Andrews ML target was clearly interrupted by the Mod.Schiff ML which would have been a great place to go Short. I should have, but when I'm in a winning Long position, I tend to hang on to it in hopes that it develops further. It blinded me to the far better short opportunity that developed.

The chart is a good example of price forming a wedge between two major pitchfork lines that intersect, in this case the Andrews LML and the Mod.Schiff ML.

I like your charts. Thanks for posting them.

P.S. The Andrews fork offers three clues that should have alerted me to looking for a Short opportunity because the fork would fail. The first clue is that just after the Andrews was drawn price went up towards the ML but fell short of it and came down for a retest. That by itself isn't a big deal, but when price rose again, it fell even MORE short of the ML (2nd clue). Then there were two more retests, and the 3rd clue is that both of those broke a bit below the LML before rising. (A 4th clue is that the Mod.Schiff ML does have several short overshoots that showed good general resistance before it finally provided an exact final touch). By this point, I should have been tuned in to the clues for weakness and have been ready to go short at any clear signal. Well the signal happened, but I wasn't there mentally. Live and learn...

Thanks P and you keep posting your analysis too.
Always learning.

I've been trading off a longer term fork on the 60 min chart but this inside
green fork looks to be catching some nice action.

Caught a nice retest at the quartile today...countertrend volume was
falling is what caught my eye to take it...

...

nice chart...I can see the fork lines and the idea of a modified schiff that
is anchored back off the screen to the left...but how did you come up with the slope and placement of the action/reaction lines...It looks like you have some nice energy points with those.

May look to take some profit on retest of green median line...some nice
action down there..

Potential long here will wait till Sunday night for a retest at the
sliding parallel.

I've got some great frequency pulled off this huge 240 fork.

Flip side....

This is a little cluttered compared to your chart but you may be able
to find an entry long if that's what you are trying to do before then...
thanks for the post those lines look good.

Here's a zoomed in look...if I were a betting man...I'd be looking at the blue ML to get long...you would want to see a push down on lower volume
and a test and retest of the ML to take your long with tight risk behind prior bounce...the only problem here is the risk to reward...A triangle could
easily form and you could get trapped on the upside by the red ML and SP.

The arrows indicate the points chosen for the action-reaction lines. I drew the lines moving "forward" in time.

My 2.5 cents...

Thanks....those lines look good...we look like we are at resistance

FWIW