Gann Square

Gann square, as a chart construction, means squaring a range: the vertical distance from a major low to a major high is set equal, in the drawing, to a horizontal distance in time. Diagonals of that square are 1x1 angles for that range, and subdivisions of the square mark both prices and times. The phrase is also loosely used for the Square of Nine. Here it means the range square on the chart. The point of the construction is to stop angles from being accidental screen graphics. Once the square is fixed, half the range, the mid time, and the diagonals are determined. You have turned one swing into a box and then read the box.

Take a completed major swing. Draw the square so its height is the swing and its width is whatever time length your scale sets equal to that height, or, in the version that squares price with a chosen bar count, set the width to a time count you specified in advance. These are two different procedures. The first makes the square look square. The second makes it square in your units even if it looks like a rectangle on screen. Know which one your tool does. Subdivide into quarters or eighths if you need interior prices. Those interior prices are just fractions of the range. You could have marked 50 percent and 25 percent without Gann's name and gotten the same horizontals.

Use the square to fix the scale before you draw angles, and to mark the half-range and the mid-time of a swing you consider important. A turn near the mid-time of a large range is interesting because large swings do often pause near their middle in time. It is not interesting because the square is magic. If you only want the fractions, use a retracement tool and a bar count and skip the square. The square earns its place when it stops you from redrawing angles to fit.

Squaring a minor swing and subdividing it into eighths, which manufactures a grid of tiny levels around noise. Also confusing this square with the Square of Nine and mixing their outputs. And resizing the square after the next swing so that the diagonal passes through the new low. The square was supposed to be fixed by the original range.

A square is a frame around one range. The next regime, a volatility shock, a split, or a change of timeframe, makes the old unit awkward. The construction does not say which range deserved to be squared. That choice is the analysis, and it is the part no square can do for you. Interior eighths, like any fine subdivision, will sit near prices by accident.