Market structure
A chart description based on the sequence of visible swing highs and swing lows.
Readers compare successive turning points using labels such as higher high, higher low, lower high and lower low. The sequence helps describe whether price has been rising, falling or ranging.
A higher high followed by a higher low is one observation within a rising structure; more context is needed before describing a sustained trend.
Swing selection is sensitive to scale and method. Structure describes the chosen chart history and is not a forecast.
The four labels
Each new swing is compared with the last swing of the same kind: a high with the previous high, a low with the previous low.
| Label | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Higher high (HH) | A swing high above the previous swing high |
| Higher low (HL) | A swing low above the previous swing low |
| Lower high (LH) | A swing high below the previous swing high |
| Lower low (LL) | A swing low below the previous swing low |
How a swing is picked
A swing high is a bar whose high is above the highs of the bars on either side of it; a swing low is the same with lows. How many bars on each side you require changes which turning points count. The example below uses three bars on each side of daily bars.
Change the timeframe or the number of bars and the labels change with them. That is why two people can describe the same chart differently and both be consistent.
A real example: gold, May to September 2026
Every swing on our broker's daily gold chart from 21 May to 23 September 2026, labelled against the previous swing of the same kind. It shows the vocabulary on real prices; it is a description of what already happened, not a prediction.
Read down the table: lower lows and lower highs through June, higher lows from mid July, two higher highs in August, then lower lows and lower highs again in September.
| Date | Swing | Price | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| 28 May 2026 | Low | 4,366.33 | first swing low |
| 29 May 2026 | High | 4,595.32 | first swing high |
| 10 Jun 2026 | Low | 4,023.92 | lower low |
| 17 Jun 2026 | High | 4,382.29 | lower high |
| 24 Jun 2026 | Low | 3,959.14 | lower low |
| 30 Jun 2026 | Low | 3,943.98 | lower low |
| 06 Jul 2026 | High | 4,202.61 | lower high |
| 17 Jul 2026 | Low | 3,959.68 | higher low |
| 22 Jul 2026 | High | 4,166.06 | lower high |
| 29 Jul 2026 | Low | 3,995.91 | higher low |
| 30 Jul 2026 | High | 4,120.32 | lower high |
| 13 Aug 2026 | High | 4,449.78 | higher high |
| 14 Aug 2026 | Low | 4,310.99 | higher low |
| 25 Aug 2026 | High | 4,696.92 | higher high |
| 02 Sep 2026 | Low | 4,282.39 | lower low |
| 03 Sep 2026 | High | 4,510.87 | lower high |
| 16 Sep 2026 | Low | 4,234.96 | lower low |
| 18 Sep 2026 | High | 4,399.66 | lower high |
Questions people ask
What is a higher high?
A swing high that sits above the previous swing high on the same chart.
What is a higher low?
A swing low that sits above the previous swing low on the same chart.
Does market structure predict the next move?
No. It describes the sequence of turning points already on the chart. The same labels are read differently by different methods.
Source: Swings found by FXSynapse AI on our broker's XAUUSD daily bars (server time UTC), 21 May to 23 Sep 2026, with three bars required on each side.
Also called: what is market structure, market structure meaning
Related terms
A definition, not financial advice. Trading carries a risk of loss.