# Speed Resistance Lines Also known as: quadrant lines. A Trend concept (Channels, lines & geometry) in the LuxAlgo Library, with 1 indicator implementation. ## What are Speed Resistance Lines? Speed resistance lines, or speedlines, are a [fan tool](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/fan-principle/) credited to market analyst Edson Gould. In an uptrend, the vertical rise from a significant swing low to a swing high is divided into thirds; from the same low, one ray is drawn through the two-thirds level and another through the one-third level measured at the high's position. Together with the original low-to-high line, that gives three rays of decreasing slope: the trend's full speed and two slower fractions of it. The construction mirrors downward from a high in a downtrend. The lines act as trend-speed benchmarks. A correction that holds the 2/3 speedline keeps most of the advance's pace intact; losing it shifts attention to the 1/3 line, and breaking both suggests the trend's rate has failed even if price still sits above the swing low. The name quadrant lines, sometimes grouped with speedlines, refers to a related construction that splits the same swing into fourths rather than thirds. As with any anchored geometry, the levels depend entirely on which swing points are chosen, and reactions at them are tendencies, not guarantees. Gould himself is a name worth knowing: one of the most followed technicians of the mid-twentieth century, whose advisory work made celebrated multi-decade calls and whose three-steps-and-a-stumble rule about monetary policy entered the permanent vocabulary. The speedline idea translates the classical one-third and two-thirds correction depths into sloped form: instead of asking how much of the rise was retraced, it asks whether the trend still advances at a third or two-thirds of its original rate, converting a static retracement grid into rays that rise with time. The logic is why the 2/3 line carries the primary defense role, since a trend that keeps two-thirds of its speed is merely resting. The modern descendants swap the fractions: fib speed resistance fans, the auto-anchored builds among them, draw the same rays through 0.382, 0.5 and 0.618 of the swing instead of thirds, merging Gould's geometry with the retracement family's numbers. Practice is anchor discipline plus confluence: the fan means most when drawn from swings the market demonstrably respected, its levels gain force where they cross horizontal structure, and a broken speedline retested from beneath is played with ordinary [trendline](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/trendline/) role-reversal logic. The standing caveat is the family's: anchored geometry is only as objective as the anchors. ## How to identify speed resistance lines One swing, three rays: the construction is arithmetic, the meaning is the defense ladder. 1. Anchor on a significant swing: a low and the high it produced in an uptrend, the mirror in a downtrend. 2. Divide the vertical rise into thirds, marking the one-third and two-thirds heights at the swing high's position in time. 3. Draw the rays from the anchor low through each fraction: full-speed line to the high, then the 2/3 and 1/3 speedlines beneath it. 4. Extend the rays forward: they rise with time, expressing correction depth as trend rate rather than static levels. 5. Read the ladder: corrections holding the 2/3 line keep the trend's pace; losing it demotes attention to the 1/3 line; breaking both says the rate has failed regardless of price's level. ## How traders use it - As trailing trend gauges in an established move: the 2/3 line is watched as the first defense during pullbacks, then the 1/3 line, with each loss treated as a downgrade of trend strength rather than an instant reversal call. - As a sloped alternative to one-third and two-thirds retracement rules: the speedline version expresses those correction depths as support that rises (or falls) with time instead of static horizontal levels. - As a role-reversal frame: a broken speedline is watched as resistance on the retest, the same logic applied to an ordinary [trendline](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/trendline/). - In fib-fraction form: auto-anchored fan tools draw the same rays through 0.382, 0.5 and 0.618 of the swing, blending Gould's construction with the retracement family's levels for traders who prefer those numbers. - With confluence discipline: speedline touches that coincide with horizontal levels, prior structure, or a [dynamic average](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/dynamic-s-r-via-ma/) get the attention, while lone geometric touches in space are logged rather than traded. ## Speedlines vs related fan and line tools - **Gann Fan** (https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/gann-fan-and-angles/): Both fan rays from a pivot, but speedlines scale to the measured swing, thirds of its actual rise, while Gann angles assert fixed price-time slopes independent of any swing and sensitive to chart scaling. Swing-relative versus absolute geometry is the entire dispute. - **Trendline** (https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/trendline/): A trendline is drawn to touches, earning its slope from the market's own pivots; a speedline's slope is computed from one swing's arithmetic, touches optional. The trendline is evidence-fitted, the speedline hypothesis-projected, which is why the latter needs confluence to earn trust. - **Dynamic S/R via MA** (https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/dynamic-s-r-via-ma/): Moving averages supply sloped support computed continuously from all recent prices; speedlines supply it from two anchor points and fixed fractions. The average adapts and lags, the fan is fixed and instant, and trends that respect one often ignore the other. ## FAQ ### How are speed resistance lines different from a Gann fan? Both fan rays from a pivot, but the slopes come from different logic. Speedlines scale the measured swing's rise into thirds, so they adapt to the move in question. A [Gann fan](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/gann-fan-and-angles/) draws fixed price-time angles such as the 1x1, independent of any particular swing's size and sensitive to chart scaling. Speedlines are swing-relative; Gann angles are absolute. ### Do speed resistance lines work on any timeframe? The construction is timeframe-agnostic: any clear swing low and high define the fan. What changes is the quality of the anchors. Minor intraday swings produce lines that break constantly, while widely watched daily or weekly swings give levels more participants can see. Treat reactions as tendencies to confirm with price behavior, not as automatic support. ### Who was Edson Gould? One of the most respected market technicians of the mid-twentieth century, whose advisory letters made a series of famous long-range calls and whose three-steps-and-a-stumble rule, equity trouble after three successive Fed tightenings, remains quoted. Speedlines are his signature charting contribution, and their survival owes something to both the record and the elegance of expressing correction depth as trend speed. ### Why divide the swing into thirds? Because the classical correction doctrine ran in thirds: healthy pullbacks retracing a third of the advance, deep ones two-thirds, with worse implying the trend itself was in question. Gould's rays convert those depths into rates, a correction holding the 2/3 speedline keeps two-thirds of the trend's pace, letting the benchmark rise with time instead of waiting statically. The fractions are convention rather than law, which the fib-fraction descendants demonstrate by simply substituting their own. ### What are quadrant lines? The related construction that splits the same swing into fourths instead of thirds, drawing rays through the quarter heights, with the midline, half the swing's rise, serving as the equilibrium reference. The reading grammar matches speedlines, a ladder of trend-rate benchmarks descending from full speed, just with finer gradations. Which division a trader uses matters less than using one consistently on anchors that deserve it. ### What are Fibonacci speed resistance fans? The modern hybrid: Gould's ray construction with the retracement family's fractions, lines through 0.382, 0.5 and 0.618 of the swing's rise rather than thirds. Auto-anchoring implementations detect the swings and maintain the fans mechanically. Functionally they behave like speedlines with different rungs, and the same disciplines apply: anchor quality decides meaning, and confluence with horizontal structure decides which touches deserve action. ## Implementations in the Library - Speed Resistance Lines (LuxAlgo): https://www.luxalgo.com/library/indicator/speed-resistance-lines/ ## Related concepts - Trendline: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/trendline/ - Linear-regression Channel: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/linear-regression-channel/ - Parallel Channel: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/parallel-channel/ - Fan Principle: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/fan-principle/ - Standard-error Channel: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/standard-error-channel/ - Polynomial Regression Band: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/polynomial-regression-band/ - Andrews' Pitchfork: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/andrews-pitchfork/ - Gann Fan & Angles: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/gann-fan-and-angles/ - Gann Box: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/gann-box/ - Gann Square of 9: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/gann-square-of-9/ --- Source: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/speed-resistance-lines/ (LuxAlgo Library, the encyclopedia of trading & technical analysis). Free to use with attribution: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/license/