Drawing Gann Angles Charts
Interpretation
The Gann Angles tool draws Gann support and resistance lines on the chart to make
up a Gann Fan. The lines of a Gann Fan are used to determine price breakouts and
the strength of those breakouts. You can apply up to nine Gann Lines in each Gann
Fan.
A Gann Fan cannot be drawn on a chart scaled to semi-log. This is because a Gann
Fan requires that a unit move is always displayed with the same amount of screen
space on your chart, regardless of what price level is being examined. With a semi
log chart, this assumption is not true.
Above all else, the heart of Gann analysis rests with the angles. Mr Gann, who developed
the Gann Fan, took a square and divided it into 28 equal squares vertically and
horizontally. He then drew a 45-degree angle through the middle of it. He called
this angle the "one-by-one" (I x l). This means that for every one movement in time
there is one movement in price.
One of the easiest methods of detecting a bull market is determining whether prices
hold above the 45-degree line. According to Gann theory, when the line is violated,
the bull market is ending.
Although the one-by-one is the most important angle, there are the one-by-two (1x2),
one-by-four (1 x4), one-by-eight (1 x8), and one-by-sixteen (1 x 16) angles as well.
Gann's rule for using angles was this: if one angle is broken, the market will trade
down (up) to the next-lowest (highest) angle. A one-by-two angle is steeper than
a one-by-one angle. Thus, if prices rise at a one-by-two angle the market is considered
extremely bullish. All angles should be drawn from any significant high or low points
in the market.
As markets turn from bull to bear, however, the one-by-one will no longer hold and,
in time, the pace might accelerate still more. At that time, the two-by-one line
might be the line the market is following. If one line cannot hold, look for the
market to trade to the next line.
The angles are valuable not only as support and resistance lines, but as indicators
of important reversal points as well. The reversal points occur where the angles
cross. For example, if the market made a significant low at 280.00, went up to 289.80,
then came down to 280.00 once again. If at both occurrences of 280.00 one-by-one
and one-by-two lines were drawn up from them, the one-by-one from the first point
will at some point cross the one-by-two from the second point and vice versa. These
points are critical points and many times indicate a powerful reversal.