How to Create a Point and Figure Chart

Table of Contents

What is a Point and Figure Chart

Point and Figure charts are time-independent charts used to track price movements and to make decisions on purchasing stock. They plot a column of Xs as the price rises and a column of Os as the price falls.

Point and Figure charts use price values and two main parameters: a Box Reversal Amount (as an integer between 1 and 5) a Box Size value (as a percent).

The chart expects two values, a low and high price amount. When one single value is given, it’s taken as low, and the high is calculated as low + 0.5.

The separate up and down colors may be used one for Xs, the other for Os. If you uncheck the Proportional Symbols options, the X/O symbols will occupy the whole available wide area. In 3D, the columns of Xs and Os appear as vertical bars.

Steps to Create a Point and Figure Chart

Start Visual Xtractor or Data Xtractor. Connect to a database. Create or design a SQL query. Run the query and check the results.

Display and enable the Chart query builder.
Select two low and high numeric price/stock columns, in this order, as Price Charts – Point and Figure. When only one column is used, it is considered the low, and the high is internally calculated as low plus 0.5.
Select one datetime column as chart Label. When not given, a suite of 1, 2, 3 etc values is automatically generated for the horizontal X time axis.

Point and Figure Chart Demo Query

This is a great alternative to learn about and play with this type of chart, if you don’t want to create it from scratch. As one single column is assigned as Point and Figure chart, it is considered the low, and the high is internally calculated as low plus 0.5.

Look for the ready-to-use single-series Point and Figure Chart generated query under the Queries > Demo Queries > Charts > Price Charts folder. Click on the “add demo queries” command link, if not already there. You can switch anytime between 3D and 2D chart views.

The generated demo queries must work for any database, with no restriction. They use constant values generated on-the-fly and your database SQL engine, but do not depend on data from your tables, and never alter your database in any way.

Point and Figure Chart with Low and High Values

Point and Figure charts are always single-series and they cannot be used in separate multiple charts.

When two numeric columns are assigned, first is considered the low, the second is the high. The following chart uses separate low and high columns, where the high was explicitly passed through the SQL query as low plus 2:

Customize your Point and Figure Chart

The chart toolbar at the bottom has many options you may change with one single click, to alter the graph. Here is just an example of what you can further do with this type of chart:

Change the Box Reversal Amount (default 3) with another allowed 1 to 5 value.
Change the Box Size (by default 10%) with another allowed value.
Uncheck the Proportional Symbols option, to use the whole wide area.
Remove the up-and-down colors, to make the graph monochrome.
Remove any color, to show the graph in gray.
Keep just the graph, with no plot or labels, to avoid clutter.
You could also switch to 3D, to see vertical bars replacing the Xs and Os.

Conclusion

Creating Point and Figure charts in Data Xtractor or Visual Xtractor is fast and rather simple: set one or two price/stock data columns as Point and Figure charts, and one datetime column as Label.
Check or uncheck Proportional Symbols option, for the best layout.
Change the Box Reversal Amount to another predefined value.
Change the Box Size to another predefined value.
Many builtin powerful features of these chart type are common to most other charts: filtering series through the legend items, interactivity, monochrome or grayscale colors etc.
Switch to another builtin chart theme, or customize your own, for any possible color or other styles.