1986issue C071-4
Figure-chart construction, counts, and halfway tests
Figure charts post price path only and sit beside Wyckoff vertical charts that carry the price-volume record. Construction starts with an explicit box size, then a horizontal formation whose width becomes a count, then a halfway reaction used to read technical strength or weakness.
- A figure chart posts price path only; the Wyckoff vertical chart beside it carries the price-volume record, and the two charts are often updated together.
- Box size is explicit: a one-point chart posts full-figure changes and drops fractions, while three-point, five-point, and ten-point charts post only moves of that size or larger.
- Horizontal-formation width, including blank cells, becomes a horizontal count projected up from the deepest low or down from the peak high, and the count is revised if a wider formation appears.
- The same plot checks whether a reaction retraces halfway, flags hinge and oversold-column outlines, and treats disagreement with the vertical chart as an early warning rather than a veto.
Two charts, two jobs
In this workflow, figure charts post price path only and sit beside Wyckoff vertical charts that carry the price-volume record. The Wyckoff method is a two-chart workflow in which the vertical price-volume record supplies direction and the figure chart measures congestion, travel, and early warnings.
A one-point figure chart can be posted from a vertical chart or from a session's opening, high, low, and closing prices, and the two charts are often updated together.
Choose a box size
A point-and-figure chart is a price-only figure chart that posts directional moves in a chosen full-point increment and drops smaller fractions. Box size is the minimum posted change on the figure chart, described here as one, three, five, or ten points.
A one-point figure chart posts full-figure changes and drops fractions. Three-point, five-point, and ten-point charts post only moves of that size or larger.
Mark the horizontal formation
A horizontal formation is a sideways row of repeated prices, including intervening blanks, read as a demand or supply baseline. Horizontal formations locate where demand or supply is building, and a prolonged advance or decline is treated as unlikely if that baseline is missing.
After a decline, a horizontal row is read as demand able to halt the drop. After a rally, the same kind of row is read as supply that can reverse price once demand is filled.
Project the horizontal count
A horizontal count is a projection that treats formation width as the number of points price may rise from its deepest low or fall from its peak high. Formation width is counted across both posted marks and blank cells.
In the construction example, a ten-cell count of eight marks and two blanks added to a 59 low is read as a 69 upside objective. The count is revised if a wider formation later appears.
Read halfway reactions and outline flags
The halfway-reaction measure is a figure-chart check of whether a correction has retraced half the preceding swing, used as a read of technical strength or weakness. The same plot is used to judge that strength or weakness by checking whether a reaction retraces halfway from its starting point.
Figure-chart outline also flags a thrust that breaks a decline's angle. A hinge is oscillations that contract into the dead center of a trading range, treated as the pivot of a springboard. An oversold column is a straight vertical stack of prices with no intervening rally or plateau, and an unbroken vertical column is read as oversold.
When the figure chart and the vertical chart appear to disagree, the conflict is treated as an early warning. Neither plot is allowed to cancel the other.
All readings on this track · 21 readings
- 1986Figure-chart construction, counts, and halfway tests
- 1986Constructing Wyckoff trendlines on vertical and figure charts
- 1987Stand down or rehearse on paper when a Wyckoff read fails
- 1987Wyckoff campaign phases as one enter, exit, or stay-out procedure
- 1990Two-bar narrow range as a countdown to the next open
- 1991Channel location as a remaining-room test
- 1991Swing relative strength versus an index proxy
- 1991After a Wyckoff bias, rank leftover cause and keep three-to-one stops
- 1991Timing individual issues to general-market turns
- 1991Constructing a halfway volume map for range resolution
- 1998Wyckoff action sequence as a classroom chart drill
- 1999Hand-plotted point-and-figure trendlines and Wyckoff counts
- 2000Constructing volume confirmation from recent activity
- 2007Diagnose the range on bars, then count it on point and figure
- 2011Wyckoff cause count and spring tests
- 2014Reading the 2008-14 DJIA as a Composite Operator campaign
- 2015Confirm a price-action pivot only after independent signals agree
- 2016A double top stays unfinished until candles show control
- 2016Wyckoff's early clerkship as a campaign-reading case study
- 2016Reading campaign phases as a live drill
- 2017Three clocks on the same crowd life cycle