A Point-and-Figure (P&F) Chart is an old-school charting method that plots price movements in a grid of X’s and O’s, completely doing away with the time axis. Unlike normal charts, P&F charts do not plot price against time; instead, they only advance when price moves by a set amount and reverse after a defined retracement. Rising prices are marked with a column of X’s and falling prices with a column of O’s. Small oscillations that don’t meet the criteria are ignored, which filters out insignificant noise. The result is a step-like chart showing clear breakouts and trend reversals, highlighting support/resistance levels without time-based distortions. Relevance to EAs: Point-and-figure charts are not commonly found in standard forex platforms like cTrader or MT4 by default, but the concept is very relevant for algorithmic trading aimed at noise reduction. A forex robot could internally mimic a P&F chart by recording price in discrete increments and triggering signals only when substantial moves occur (for example, buying when a new column of X’s indicates an upside breakout). This approach can make an EA less reactive to choppy back-and-forth action and more focused on genuine trend changes. An automated strategy might use P&F logic to detect classic patterns (like triple tops, double bottoms) that are evident on these charts. However, because P&F ignores time, certain time-based indicators (like RSI or moving averages on a time series) aren’t directly applicable – a robot relying on P&F would instead use price-level-based rules. In summary, while not a built-in chart type in cTrader’s suite, point-and-figure techniques can be coded into forex robots to emphasize pure price movement and clear pattern recognition, thereby potentially improving signal quality by filtering out time-based noise.

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