A cycle window is a count of trading days projected forward from a pivot — a prior swing high or low. That pivot is the anchor, and it is the single most consequential choice in the whole process. Get it wrong and every projected window inherits the error, like measuring a room from the wrong corner.
The math is trivial: pick a pivot, count forward 30, 45, 60, 90 trading days, mark the dates. The skill is entirely in which pivot you pick.
The first decision
What makes a good anchor
A trustworthy anchor has three traits. Miss any one and the count weakens.
Clear. An obvious, significant swing high or low — the kind you'd point to without hesitation — not a minor intraday wiggle.
Reactive. Price visibly turned and followed through from it. A pivot that produced a big, clean move is a stronger anchor than one price barely respected.
Recent enough. Close enough that the projected counts land in a tradeable future, but far enough that it was a real structural turn.
Drag the anchor in the tool below across different pivots on the price series. Watch how the projected windows shift — and notice that anchoring on a meaningful low produces far more sensible forward dates than anchoring on a random mid-trend candle.
📊 Interactive demo — coming soon
When you're unsure which pivot
Often two or three pivots look reasonable. Rather than agonize, count from each of them. If windows from different anchors land on or near the same future date, that agreement is itself a signal — it's the seed of confluence, which lesson 2.4 develops fully. Disagreement, conversely, is a sign to wait for clearer structure.
Field tip
The radar does the anchoring for you across thousands of symbols — but understanding it lets you sanity-check a flagged window. If a window is counted from a pivot that doesn't look clear, reactive, and meaningful on the chart, treat it with extra caution.
❓ You're choosing an anchor pivot for a cycle count. Which candidate is the strongest?
Key takeaways
A cycle window is a forward count of trading days from a pivot (the anchor).
The anchor is the most consequential choice; errors propagate to every window.
Good anchors are clear, reactive, and recent enough.
When unsure, count from several pivots — agreement hints at confluence.
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