The Pivot Machine Gun (PMG)
Five or more consecutive higher lows is a strong trend — right up until the streak breaks. Then every one of those stacked pivots is a stop cluster waiting in sequence, and price tends to unwind them one by one. Rob Smith called it the Pivot Machine Gun: each pivot a round going off as the ladder empties.
Why the unwind chains
Each higher low in the stack is where somebody defined their risk. When the first pivot breaks, those stops fire and push price into the next pivot — which fires the next set. The mechanism is identical to a failed 2, repeated down a ladder: forced exits, not fresh opinion, doing the moving.
The ladder is the target list
PMG's practical gift is that it hands you targets in order: the prior pivots, nearest first. Rather than guessing how far a reversal travels, you work the ladder — each rung both a target and a decision point. Our PMG alerts print the ladder explicitly for that reason.
Spotting it before it fires
Count consecutive higher lows (or lower highs) — five is the conventional threshold. The more consecutive pivots and the tighter their spacing, the more mechanical the unwind tends to be. The trigger is the break of the most recent pivot; the failed 2 that often prints there is your confirmation that the streak's crowd is trapped.
See it live, right now
Every concept on this page is detected in real time across 190+ tickers — candle typing, trigger levels, and alerts the second a level breaks.
FAQ
What counts as a PMG?
Five or more consecutive higher lows (bearish PMG when they break) or lower highs (bullish mirror). The streak defines the ladder; the break of the newest pivot starts the unwind.
Are PMG moves fast?
Often, because the fuel is stops firing in sequence. But each pivot is also a natural pause — treating the ladder as staged targets is more robust than assuming one straight-line flush.
How does PMG relate to failed 2s?
A PMG unwind usually BEGINS with a failed 2 — the streak's final breakout failing — and then the cascade mechanics repeat at each rung. They are the same trapped-trader physics at different scales.
Keep learning
Educational content, not financial advice. Patterns describe probabilities, not promises.