Start Here: The Ladder on Any Platform
The ladder is the same on every platform: two anchors, R1 and S1, and every level a percentage of the distance between them. Your platform only has to draw it. There are two ways to do that, and every guide in this section shows both.
Way 1: the Fibonacci tool as a ruler
Every major platform has a Fibonacci retracement tool. It draws horizontal lines at percentages of the distance between two points, which is the level formula from Chapter 8. Replace its Fibonacci values with the ladder’s and it draws the ladder in one stroke (Chapter 13 explains why this does not make the ladder a Fibonacci method).
Use it when you want one box on one chart, drawn by hand, and you want to see exactly where your anchors are.
Way 2: the Outer Box indicator
Each guide includes a ready-made indicator for that platform. You choose the box period (year, quarter, month, week or day) and the mode (Beginner or Advanced), and it draws the locked ladder of the last completed period. When a period closes, the ladder steps to the new box on its own. It also shows where price sits: its percent of the range, its zone, and the bias.
Use it when you read the same boxes every day, or you want the ladder on several charts without redrawing it.
The values
Enter the values in the format your platform’s tool already uses. If its default levels look like 0.236 and 0.618, use the Ratio column; if they look like 23.6 and 61.8, use the Percent column.
| Level | Ratio | Percent | Mode |
|---|---|---|---|
| R3 | 2 | 200 | Advanced |
| R2 | 1.5 | 150 | Advanced |
| 110% (outer threshold) | 1.1 | 110 | Advanced |
| R1 | 1 | 100 | Beginner |
| 90% (inner threshold) | 0.9 | 90 | Beginner |
| C | 0.5 | 50 | Beginner |
| 10% (inner threshold) | 0.1 | 10 | Beginner |
| S1 | 0 | 0 | Beginner |
| −10% (outer threshold) | −0.1 | −10 | Advanced |
| S2 | −0.5 | −50 | Advanced |
| S3 | −1 | −100 | Advanced |
The ladder is a mirror: every level above C has a partner the same distance below it. That has a useful side effect. It does not matter which end your tool counts from. If your tool puts 0 on the high instead of the low, the lines still land in the right places; only the numbers printed beside them are reversed. If you show labels, anchor the other way round (or tick the tool’s Reverse option) so that 1 sits on R1.
Lock the box
Anchor on the high and the low of a completed period that you name: last year, last quarter, last month, last week or yesterday. Never drag the second anchor to “now”: an open box moves with price and can never show a breakout (Chapter 8). Most platforms let you type the anchor prices exactly in the drawing’s settings. Do that rather than clicking near the high.
Check every setup
- The 0.5 line sits on C. Work out C by hand, (R1 + S1) ÷ 2, and compare.
- No stray lines. Delete or untick every default level that is not in the table: 23.6, 38.2, 61.8, 78.6, 161.8, 261.8, −23.6 and the rest. A leftover −23.6 line below S1 is easy to mistake for −10%.
- Mirrored. If S2 is drawn, R2 must be too; the same for the thresholds and for R3 and S3.
- Same as the app. Enter the same high and low in the Ladder and compare a few levels. They should match to the last digit your chart shows.
Your platform
Platform menus change from time to time. If a menu in a guide has moved, the tool is almost always still there under a similar name; tell your instructor and the guide will be updated.
Platform names are trademarks of their owners. These guides are not endorsed by them.