MailBag

How are Trend Lines Drawn on Point & Figure Charts?

 | 
Trend lines are drawn at 45-degree angles on P&F charts. A rising trend line is called a Bullish Support Line, while a falling trend line is called a Bearish Resistance Line. StockCharts.com users can add trend lines automatically by selecting them as a chart overlay. Chartists can also add Bollinger Bands, moving averages and price-by-volume.

Screen Shot 2012-09-21 at 12.51.15
Click this image for a live chart.

The chart above shows the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) with user-defined boxes (1-point per box). Working from left to right, the ETF broke the Bullish Support Line (blue) with a long O-Column in August 2011. Once broken, a 45-degree Bearish Resistance Line (red) was drawn extending down from the high before the break. This line remains valid until broken, which was until October 2011. Once broken, a 45-degree Bullish Support Line was drawn from the prior low. This line currently marks support at 133. You can read more on P&F charts in our ChartSchool articles.
Arthur Hill
About the author: , CMT, is a Senior Technical Analyst at StockCharts.com. He has written articles for numerous financial publications including Barrons and Stocks & Commodities magazine. Focusing predominantly on US equities and ETFs, his systematic approach of identifying trend, finding signals within the trend, and setting key price levels has made him an esteemed technician. In addition to his CMT designation, Arthur holds an MBA from the Cass Business School at City University in London. Learn More
Subscribe to MailBag to be notified whenever a new post is added to this blog!
comments powered by Disqus