Learn / Getting started

Box size

How much price movement one box represents, and how to choose it.

The box size is how much price movement one X or one O represents. It's the most important setting on a P&F chart, because it decides what counts as a meaningful move and what gets filtered out as noise.

Smaller boxes vs. larger boxes

• Smaller boxes make the chart more sensitive. You'll see more columns, more detail and more signals, but also more false starts.
• Larger boxes make the chart calmer. Fewer columns and fewer signals, but each one reflects a bigger, more significant move.

Neither is "right." The box size should fit the stock's price and the time frame you trade.

The traditional scale

The classic method uses a fixed box size that steps up as the price rises, so a $10 stock and a $300 stock are charted with comparable sensitivity. This is the standard scale used for daily charts:

When a stock crosses one of these thresholds, the box size changes from that price on.

Percentage (logarithmic) boxes

An alternative is to make each box a fixed percentage of price, such as 1% or 2%. A 1% box on a $50 stock is $0.50; on a $200 stock it's $2.00. Percentage scaling treats a move of the same proportion the same way at any price, which is useful for long-term charts where a stock has risen or fallen a long way.

Smaller boxes for shorter time frames

Intraday charts use much smaller boxes than daily charts, because an intraday move is a fraction of a typical daily move. A stock charted with $1 boxes on a daily chart might use $0.25 or smaller boxes intraday. See Point & Figure for day-trading.

For education only. Nothing here is investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security.