Gann Square of 144: How the Grid Is Built, How Traders Use It, and What Is Not Proven

The Gann Square of 144 is a grid of 12 by 12 cells, numbered from 1 to 144, that W. D. Gann used to relate price to time. In the course text quoted by Gann Point, Gann calls it his Master Chart: “the Square of ‘12’ or 12 x 12, making the first square end at 144.” Traders lay the square over a chart from a major high or low and watch its eighths and thirds as possible turning zones. It is a drawing convention with a long following, not a tested signal: we found no published study showing that its levels do better than levels drawn at random.

How the 144 cells are numbered

The numbers run in columns of 12. In the passage quoted by Gann Point, the bottom row reads 1, 13, 25, 37, 49, 61, 73, 85, 97, 109, 121, 133 and the top row reads 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, 72, 84, 96, 108, 120, 132, 144. So the first column holds 1 to 12, the second 13 to 24, and the twelfth, which Gann calls the 12th section, ends at 144.

Two diagonals cross the grid. The one that starts at 1 climbs one row per column, so each step adds 13: 1, 14, 27, 40, 53, 66, 79, 92, 105, 118, 131, 144. The one that starts at 12 falls one row per column, so each step adds 11: 12, 23, 34, 45, 56, 67, 78, 89, 100, 111, 122, 133. Gann’s text names both as strong angles. The sequences follow from the layout, so you can check them on any printed grid.

Gann did not stop at 144. In the same passage he writes that the second square of 12 ends at 288, the third at 432 and the fourth at 576, and he calls the 8th and 9th sections “the strongest and hardest points to pass,” with the 12th section, where the square closes, stronger still. Those are his statements about the chart, not measured results.

For comparison, the Square of 9 winds its numbers around a central cell instead of counting up in columns.

The divisions traders draw on the square

Modern tools split the square into eighths and thirds, on the price side and on the time side. One published TradingView script for the Square of 144 plots its levels at 0, 18, 36, 48, 54, 72, 90, 96, 108, 126 and 144, with 72 as the midline and 48 and 96 as the thirds. These are simple fractions of 144, so the table below works as a calculator: multiply the cell count by your price per cell and add it to the anchor. The last two columns use a hypothetical anchor at 50.00, the one in the example below. In a spreadsheet, put the anchor in B1, the price per cell in B2 and the cell counts in column A from A4 down; =$B$1+A4*$B$2 in B4, copied down, gives every level (subtract instead of add when the anchor is a swing high).

How to lay the square on a chart

1. Pick the anchor. Use a major swing low or swing high that is clear on the time frame you trade.
2. Choose the price per cell. Gann Point, for example, maps one Gann point to 16 points of the S&P 500 index. There is no single correct value; write yours down before you look at later prices.
3. Choose the time per cell. One bar, one day, one week or one month. The vertical lines of the square then mark 18, 36, 48, 72 and so on units of time after the anchor.
4. Draw the square and its divisions. TradingView has a Gann Square tool and a Gann Square Fixed tool; the fixed version is placed with two clicks, the first on the anchor and the second for the size and orientation, with toggles for levels, fans and arcs.
5. Read the lines as zones. A level matters only if price reacts there with your own confirmation (a reversal candle, a broken trendline, a stop that is defined in advance).

Does the Gann Square of 144 work?

We do not know, and neither does anyone who publishes a chart where it fits. We found no peer-reviewed or reproducible test of Square of 144 levels against random levels. Our own test bench measures chart patterns, such as the head and shoulders, against random entries; it does not measure Gann drawing tools (see our methodology). Even indicator vendors are careful: the seller of one Square of 144 indicator notes that, as far as is known, Gann did not use the full combined markup that the indicator draws.

A fair test would fix the anchor rule, the scale and the time unit in advance, then count how often price turns within a set distance of the eighths and thirds, and compare that count with lines placed at random. Until such a test exists, the honest use of the square is as a way to organize a chart, alongside support and resistance you can see in the price itself.

Square of 144 and the other Gann tools

For the man behind these tools, his career and the claims made about him, see our profile of W. D. Gann. For the wider family of angle and ratio methods, see market geometry in trading and the technical analysis guides.