Gann Angles

Gann angles are the slopes used in the fan, named by the ratio of price units to time units. A 1x1 advances one price unit per bar. A 2x1 advances two. A 1x2 advances one price unit every two bars. Gann treated the 1x1 as the most important, a line of equilibrium between price and time, and treated a break of the angle from a major high or low as a change in trend. The angles are linear. On a log chart a constant price-per-bar line is a curve in percentage terms, so an angle that meant one thing on an arithmetic chart means another on a log chart. Gann's own practice was tied to squared arithmetic scales.

Choose the price unit explicitly. On an index, one point per day may be a trivial slope. On a stock, one rupee per day may be enormous. Some practitioners set the unit from a fraction of the price, or from the range of the first swing, which is a modern attempt to make the angle travel across markets. It is reasonable and it is no longer a unique Gann constant. Draw angles from highs and lows that a non-Gann trader would also call major. An angle from a minor pivot proves only that you can draw a line. The line becomes interesting if later swings respect it without you moving the unit.

Use a 1x1 from a major low as a trend rail, the way you would use a trendline, and judge it by the same standard: two touches are a drawing, three are a pattern, a break that retests and fails is a setup. The angle's advantage over a freehand trendline is that the slope was fixed in advance, so you cannot unconsciously steepen it to include a new low. That advantage disappears if you change the price unit after you see the new low. Keep the 2x1 and 1x2 as context for steeper and shallower phases. You do not need eight angles to see that a trend is accelerating.

Calling a hand-drawn trendline a Gann angle. A trendline connects swings. A Gann angle leaves the anchor at a preset slope and may never touch another swing. Also forcing the 1x1 through a second pivot by changing the scale. At that point you have drawn a trendline and given it a Gann name.

A fixed price-per-bar slope does not adapt when volatility changes. The market can break a 1x1 because ranges widened, not because the trend changed in any deeper sense. Angles also have the usual diagonal problem on a future bar: small anchor changes move the price. They contain no volume and no time stop. Gann paired them with time counts for a reason. Taken alone they are a fan of straight lines.