Gann Square of 9

What is the Gann Square of 9?

The Gann Square of 9 is W.D. Gann's number spiral: integers wind outward from 1 at the center, and numbers falling on the same angle of the spiral are treated as harmonically related prices. The geometry reduces to square-root arithmetic. Moving one full 360-degree rotation out along the spiral adds 2 to a number's square root, so a 180-degree step adds 1, 90 degrees adds 0.5, and 45 degrees adds 0.25. Practitioners take the square root of an anchor price (a significant high or low), add or subtract these increments, and re-square to generate candidate levels, sometimes called vibration levels, at each angle.

Gann tied the wheel to both price and time, looking for dates when a market had traveled a 'square' relationship from its anchor. There is no accepted market mechanism behind any of this, and the wheel generates many levels, so hits are easy to find after the fact. The workable reading is to treat Square-of-9 levels like any other derived level: candidate zones that earn attention only when price actually reacts there, ideally in confluence with independent evidence.

How to calculate Gann Square of 9 levels

The spiral itself is rarely drawn; the square-root shortcut produces the same levels directly.

1. 1Choose an anchor, a significant swing high or swing low, and take the square root of that price.
2. 2Add (for levels above) or subtract (for levels below) the rotation increments: 0.25 for 45 degrees, 0.5 for 90, 1 for 180, and 2 for a full 360-degree rotation.
3. 3Square each result to convert back to price; the outputs are the Square-of-9 levels for that anchor, and further rotations extend the ladder.
4. 4Rescale first if the arithmetic degenerates: very low-priced or very high-priced instruments are commonly multiplied or divided by a power of ten before taking roots.

How traders use it

• As a level map: anchor on a major pivot and mark the 90, 180 and 360-degree prices as candidate support and resistance, watching for actual reactions before trusting them.
• For confluence: a Square-of-9 level landing near independent evidence, a prior high, a fib, or a round number, is taken more seriously than one standing alone.
• In time work: counting calendar or bar spans that 'square' price and time from the anchor; this is the most speculative part of the method and is best treated as a watch window, not a forecast.