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Point and figure

A time-free chart of X columns for rising prices and O columns for falling prices, where a new column starts only after a set reversal.

Point and figure has two parameters: box size, the price move needed to add one X or O, and reversal, usually three boxes, the move needed to start a new column. A rising column of Xs continues while price makes new boxes up; a three-box fall starts an O column.

Because it only records meaningful movement, P&F produces very clean horizontal support and resistance and simple signals such as a double top buy, where an X column exceeds the previous X column.

P&F also gives mechanical targets through vertical and horizontal counts, for example column height in boxes times box size times the reversal. These counts are rules of thumb with no statistical guarantee. The chart's honest strength is decluttering, not prophecy.

Related: renko-chart, kagi-chart, support

See it drawn

Original diagrams for the ideas on this page. Illustrative, not real market data.

Support, resistance and the flip between themA price path bouncing three times off a horizontal support line and turning back three times at a resistance line, then breaking above it and settling back onto the same level.RESISTANCESUPPORT62.0056.00breaks aboveold resistance,now supportIllustrative price path: the level stays the same, its role changes.
Support, resistance and the flip. Support is a price where buyers keep stepping in and the fall stops; resistance is a price where sellers keep stepping in and the rise stops. Once price closes above an old ceiling, that same level often acts as the new floor.

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