An intraday reversal is a session that changes its mind. Price moves one way from where the last session ended, reaches a turning point, then swings back through that level and closes on the opposite side of it.
For the session to qualify, two things have to happen:
It has to travel far enough first. Price must move a minimum distance through the prior session's close before turning around. A small wobble doesn't count.
It has to close back on the other side. The close must land back past the prior close, not partway toward it.
Up first, then all the way back down through the prior session's close. Both halves have to happen for the day to count.
Missing either condition disqualifies the session from the reversal record.
The pivot and the handback
The turning point is called the pivot:
Bearish reversal: the pivot is the session high. Price runs up, then rolls over.
Bullish reversal: the pivot is the session low. Price drops, then rips back.
Reversal size is the handback, how far price traveled, in percent, from that pivot to where the session closed.
Reversal Size % = | (Close − Pivot) / Pivot | × 100the absolute distance from the pivot back to the close, as a percentage of the pivot
Example: $IBM
$IBM finished the prior session at $75.00. The next day it ran up 4.52% to a session high of $78.39. That high is the pivot. From there it sold off and closed at $71.74.
Two things have to line up for a past session to count as a match: it reversed in the same direction as today, and the size of the handback was close to today's.
Separately, the bar for what is defined as a reversal is set individually for each ticker, using its own trading history. A slow-moving index doesn't need to travel as far as a volatile stock does, so the label means the same thing no matter what ticker you're looking at.
Tool Glossary
The Basics
Intraday reversal
A session that runs away from the open in one direction, turns, and closes back on the other side of the open. Both halves have to happen for the day to count.
Pivot
The turning point of the move. On a session that runs up first it is the high; on one that drops first it is the low.
Handback
How much of the move price gives back after the pivot. On a session that ran up first, it is the fall from the high to the close.
Reversal size
The handback measured as a percentage of the pivot. It is the number the tool matches on.
Minimum travel
How far price has to get from the open before the turn counts. It is set per ticker from that name's own history, so a quiet index and a fast-moving stock are not held to the same distance.
The Readings
Matched days
The past sessions that met the same conditions you set. Every statistic the tool prints is measured from these and nothing else.