Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Martin Pring on Point and Figure Charting

Point and figure charts differ from bar charts in two important ways. First, bar charts are plotted at specific time intervals regardless of whether there is any change in price. A new plot on a point and figure chart, on the other hand, is made only when the price changes by a given amount. Point and figure charts are only concerned with measuring price, whereas bar charts measure both price (on the vertical axis) and time (on the horizontal axis).

The second major difference is that bar charts record every change in price for the period they are measuring, but point and figure charts ignore all price movements that are smaller than a specified amount. For example, if a box is set at price movements of 5 points for the Dow Industrial Average (DJIA), only price changes in excess of 5 points will be recorded, and smaller fluctuations will not appear.

Martin Pring, Technical Analysis Explained

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