Monthly

"Monthly" is trader shorthand for the monthly pivot point, a price level calculated from the previous month's trading range and used as a reference point on a chart. It is one of several pivot timeframes traders watch, alongside weekly and quarterly pivots, and the daily pivot that resets every session.

A pivot point is calculated with a simple formula, usually the average of the prior period's high, low, and close. The monthly pivot uses the high, low, and close of the entire previous calendar month to produce one number, which is then plotted as a horizontal line on the current month's chart. Traders often also plot support and resistance levels derived from that same formula, spaced above and below the pivot, but "the monthly" on its own usually refers to just the central pivot line.

Because it's built from a full month of price action, the monthly pivot moves much less often than a daily or weekly one, and it tends to represent a more significant, longer-term reference point. Price reacting to a monthly pivot level is often given more weight than a reaction to a daily one, simply because more trading activity and more participants' decisions are baked into where that number sits.

The nuance that trips people up is scale mismatch: a monthly pivot is a slow-moving, big-picture level, and treating it like a precise intraday trigger (expecting price to bounce off it tick-for-tick during a five-minute chart move) misunderstands what it's for. It's better used as context, a zone where longer-term buyers or sellers have historically shown up, rather than an exact line in the sand for a fast scalp.