How to "Square your Chart" on CycleTimer

 In this blog post we explain a method how to "square your chart" and draw actual circles in price-time space using the CycleTimer software. This is important and useful when your work includes visual or graphical analysis.

 Squaring your Chart in CycleTimer

 W.D. Gann worked with hand drawn charts. So, in order to make valid an accurate predictions he explained that you need to square you chart. What this means is that there should be a 1:1 correspondence between price and time. B. Cowan also mentions this fact in his books when he introduces the concepts of PTVs[1]. A PTV calculation works even if the chart is not squared out. But in order to draw an actual circle in price-time space to project a PTV length into the future, it is necessary to first square the chart.

 There is no built-in option in CycleTimer software to square out charts. However, there is a way to get around this and square a chart. So you can actually do a graphical analysis of a market using ellipses or circles.

 After you run CycleTimer you need to open the chart you want to square. Figure 1 shows a daily price-time chart for cash soybeans. This is the chart we will be working with.

 First step

1. You need to right-click on the chart, 
2. Then go to the "System" tab, 
3. Then choose "Clipboard" and "BMP" as the target and format type. Afterwards, click the "Copy" button,
4. Click "OK."

 What this does is to copy the current chart into the clipboard in BMP format so we can use it in Microsoft Paint in the next step.

Figure 1
Squaring a chart in CycleTimer - Step 1 - Copying chart as BMP file using CycleTimer.

 Second step

 Open Microsoft Paint. We are using version 1511 that comes with Windows 10.

1. Paste the copied chart in MS Paint using the keyboard command Ctr+V,
2. Use the "Select" tool to select the actual charting area. This is the area highlighted in red color in Figure 2. Be precise doing this, it is important,
3. Take note of the size of the selected area shown in the lower area of the screen. Make sure you are taking note of the size of the "selected" area and not of the "complete" area shown on the right.

  In this example the charting area has a size of 1094 x 532 pixels. We need the ratio between those numbers. To calculate it we simply divide 1094/532 and get 2.056 as the charting area ratio.
 

Figure 2
Squaring a chart in CycleTimer - Step 2 - Finding out Charting Area Ratio using MS Paint.

 Third step

 Back in CycleTimer software. With the charting area ratio calculated in the previous step we need to calculate the amount of data points we need to have in the time axis in order for the chart to be square. Take note of the price axis max and min values. In this case 1790¢ and 760¢. Subtract one from the other to get the price range. This is, price range = 1790-760=1030.

 Knowing the charting area ratio and the price range we can calculate the number of data points necessary in the time axis to have a square chart. This is:

 

 data points = price range x charting area ratio = 1030 x 2.056 = 2118

   

 As shown in Figure 3 to modify the number of data points in the time axis:

1.  Right click on the chart again,
2.  Go to the "Data" tab, 
3.  Insert the calculated number of data points in the "Points" box. In this case 2118.
4. Click "OK."

 At this point we have a squared chart!

Figure 3
Squaring a chart in CycleTimer - Step 3 - Squaring the chart making the relation between Price Range and Number of Data points 1:1

 Keep in mind that as long as the price or time axis ranges don't change our chart is squared. If either of these ranges change, the chart will be no longer squared. To prevent this, we can simply right-click on the chart, go to the "Axis" tab and adjust the max and min values of the price axis to the correct values. Also, do not use the "compress/expand space between bars" icons
  

 Drawing a price-time circle in CycleTimer

 After having squared a chart following the three steps explained above we can draw an actual price-time circle using the "Ellipse" tool.
 

 First step

 As outlined in Figure 4 we need to adjust the "Ellipse" in order to get a circle.

1. Click the "Format the Tools and Cycles icon" in CycleTimer,
2. Go to the "Ellipse" tab,
3. Change "Axes Ratio" value to 1. This creates an ellipse with the major and minor axis of equal size, which creates a circle,
4. Check the box "Draw From Center Outward." This way we can draw a circle from its center.
5. Click "OK."

Figure 4
Drawing an actual price-time circle in CycleTimer - Step 1 - Modifying ellipse tool properties

 
 As explained in Figure 5, the circles need to be drawn from top to bottom in a vertical line. This is necessary. This way the axis of the circle are parallel to the axes of the chart.
 

Figure 5
Drawing am actual price-time circle in CycleTimer - Step 2 - Drawing the circle. Several PTVs of length 3x144 and the corresponding price-time circles.

 After you are done drawing all price-time circles you need, the size of the chart can be changed and the software will automatically re-calculate the axis ratio of the ellipses/circles. So even though the chart will no longer be squared and the circles will not look as circles, they will still be actual circles in price-time space.

 Summary

 We have presented a method on how to square your charts using CycleTimer software and on how to draw a circle in price-time once the chart is squared. Having a squared out chart is important when working with ellipses or when projecting PTV lengths using circles.

 [1] PTV stands for Price-Time Vector. This concept was introduced by Bradley Cowan in his writings. Both PTV and Price-Time Vector are trademarks of Bradley Cowan.

 Soybeans - March 2016 

 Ricardo Da Costa

 Grain Market Analysis