What Is a Point and Figure Chart

Six months as columns

A point and figure chart draws the price as columns of marks. Here is gold from January to June 2025 with a box of 25 dollars. A column of X grows upward while the close keeps reaching new 25-dollar boxes; it ends, and a column of O begins one box lower, when the close turns back three boxes, 75 dollars. The six months made fourteen columns and 105 marks. The tallest is seventeen X from 3000 to 3425, filled between 9 and 22 April; the column of seven O after it began on 23 April. There is no time along the bottom, and a quiet week adds nothing.

Noughts and crosses

Picture a noughts and crosses board with the marks kept. Each square is one box of price, 25 dollars here. While the close keeps reaching higher boxes, X after X goes up the same column; when it turns back three boxes, a new column starts one square over, and O after O comes down it. A turn of one or two boxes is not enough, so a small wobble adds nothing. The board has no clock: a column takes as long as it takes, and a week that stays inside one box leaves no mark at all.

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