Point and figure chart
Also known as: P&F chart
A point and figure chart is a style of charting that plots price movement using columns of X's and O's while completely ignoring the passage of time. Unlike a typical candlestick or , where each unit on the horizontal axis represents a fixed period like a day or a week, a point and figure chart only adds a new mark when the price moves by a predetermined amount, called the box size, which strips out minor noise and periods of inactivity entirely.
A column of X's is added as the price rises, with each X representing the price advancing by one box size, while a column of O's is added as the price falls. The chart only switches from a column of X's to a column of O's, or vice versa, once the price reverses by a set multiple of the box size, known as the reversal amount, commonly three boxes. Because trading days with little movement simply produce no new marks at all, the chart naturally filters out sideways chop and highlights only meaningful price swings.
The result is a chart that makes trends, levels, and breakout points stand out more cleanly than they might on a standard time-based chart, since small daily fluctuations that would otherwise clutter the picture are removed automatically. Point and figure charting has a long history in , predating computerized charting, and remains popular with some traders specifically because its box-and-reversal construction forces a level of objectivity, a new signal only appears when the price has genuinely moved a defined amount, not simply because a new day has begun.