Dolfin 

I,m working with GOld the spi on the asx and the ES contract... was also doing the CL contract crude oil but had to drop one off my list as it was getting too complicaed keeping up...tho atm doing charting with the asx 200 for the spi gold/usd spot price and the S&P 500 cash for the ES as i still havent workied out how to keep the charts working properly between contracts.... ( its sometimes the simple things that elude me) lol

Hi @Dolfin - Sounds like you've got a LOT going on. Are you hand charting all of these?

Nixem 

Hi @Dolfin - Sounds like you've got a LOT going on. Are you hand charting all of these?

I was handcharting all of them tho i,ve now dropped back to the spi and gold ... my data comes from interactive brokers account for the xjo 200 which i,m using for tracking the spi contract... tho IB doesnt give me data for the gold index only for the futures contracts ( which i mentioned earlier was giving me a headache in obtaining correct data to keep charts updated properly as it jumped from one monthly contract to the next) so i,ve been taking data from the gold usd spot price to alleviate the issue... maybe its not the best way forward...but thats where i am atm... (any advice on this is always welcomed) i,ve tried to use 1 x1 and 2 x 1 gann lines on my computer but they dont seem to stay aligned over time...i,m sure there is an easy technique to deal with this ...in my settings perhaps...which is why i have been focused on hand drawn charts.. untill i get them right i doubt i,ll get the computerized ones on the charts correctly either...cheers Dolfin

Dolfin 

i,ve tried to use 1 x1 and 2 x 1 gann lines on my computer but they dont seem to stay aligned over time...i,m sure there is an easy technique to deal with this

@Dolfin,

The angle drift is one of the most common headaches in computerized Gann work, and it's not you doing anything wrong -- it's a fundamental issue with how most platforms handle chart scaling.

Here's the problem: NinjaTrader rescales your chart automatically when you scroll or zoom. When that happens, the visual angle shifts even though the underlying calculation stays the same. A 1x1 line drawn at what looks like 45 degrees will appear to lean differently after you zoom out. The angle calculation didn't change -- the chart's price-to-time ratio did.

The fix is manual chart scaling -- locking the points-per-bar ratio so the chart can't rescale itself. In NinjaTrader, dig into the chart properties and look for scaling options. You want to set a fixed price scale rather than letting it auto-scale. I'm not certain of the exact path in your specific version, but once you lock that ratio, your angles should hold position regardless of how you scroll or zoom.

On the gold data question -- using XAU/USD spot is actually a solid approach for Gann work. Futures contracts introduce rollover gaps that distort the continuous price history, which is the last thing you want when you're drawing long-term angles. Spot gives you an unbroken series. That's not a workaround -- that's the right call.

And the hand-charting foundation you're building is exactly right. Get the geometry correct manually first. Once you know what a properly scaled 1x1 should look like on paper, you'll immediately spot when the software isn't holding it correctly.

Have a good weekend!

-- Fi

"A 1x1 line is a ratio first, an angle second -- fix the scale, and the angle takes care of itself."