Trenddraws on the price

Connects only the swings that moved at least 5%, erasing everything smaller. Structure with the noise deleted — and a provisional final leg.

On this chart: 5% minimum swing.

ZigZag draws straight lines between swing points, ignoring every move smaller than the 5% threshold. What survives is the skeleton of the chart: the swings large enough to matter, with their sizes and durations easy to compare.

The final leg is always provisional — it redraws until a new 5% reversal confirms the last pivot. That repaint is inherent to the definition, not a defect.

Read the swing structure: higher highs and higher lows, or lower of each. Comparing successive swing sizes shows whether the moves in one direction are growing or shrinking — the raw material of trend-structure analysis, and the same pivots the Elliott and pattern engines reason over.

The lows ZigZag keeps are the swings that mattered — the levels the S/R engine clusters into zones. Reading recent swing depth also calibrates expectations: a stock whose ordinary pullbacks run 8% frames what "safely out of the money" means for it very differently than one whose pullbacks run 3%.

Like everything in this guide, these are descriptions of conditions and reference levels — context for your own decisions, not instructions to trade.