Where the Grid Percentages Come From
The grid has nine levels; six come from the golden ratio (five direct powers, one a derived root), and the other three are the swing-endpoint and halfway conventions every retracement tool uses.
- 0 percent is the swing-low endpoint
- 0
- 61.8 percent is one over phi
- 0.618034
- 38.2 percent is one over phi squared
- 0.381966
- 23.6 percent is one over phi cubed
- 0.236068
- 50 percent is the halfway convention
- 0.5
- 161.8 percent is phi
- 1.618034
- 261.8 percent is phi squared
- 2.618034
- 78.6 percent is the square root of one over phi
- 0.786151
- 100 percent is the swing-high endpoint
- 1
The grid has nine levels. Six of them come from the golden ratio, phi, by a fixed power or root. None of those six were picked by eye.
61.8% is 1 divided by phi. 38.2% is 1 divided by phi squared. 23.6% is 1 divided by phi cubed. Each step divides by phi again, and each one lands lower than the last. Going the other direction, above 100%, the same pattern continues: 161.8% is phi itself, and 261.8% is phi squared.
Three of the grid's levels work differently. 0% and 100% are the swing low and swing high themselves — the two endpoints the whole grid is measured between, not a phi power at all. 50% has no phi derivation either; it's the halfway convention every retracement tool uses, phi-based or not — the midpoint of a move, nothing more. 78.6% does come from phi, but not by the same division-by-phi pattern as the others: it's the square root of 61.8%. Take one over phi, take its square root, and 78.6% is what comes out.
That's the whole set, nine levels: five built as direct powers of phi, one built as a square root of a phi power, and three that are plain conventions — the two swing endpoints and the halfway mark — with no phi behind them at all. The grid doesn't mix these up — each level's number is exactly what its construction produces.
The script that checks this
verify_grid_ratios.py
lvl_0 (0.000) is a convention: swing-low endpoint (0%) lvl_236 (0.236) = 1/phi^3 -> 0.236068 lvl_382 (0.382) = 1/phi^2 -> 0.381966 lvl_500 (0.500) is a convention: halfway convention lvl_618 (0.618) = 1/phi -> 0.618034 lvl_786 (0.786) = sqrt(1/phi) -> 0.786151 (derived root, not a direct phi power) lvl_1000 (1.000) is a convention: swing-high endpoint (100%) lvl_1618 (1.618) = phi -> 1.618034 lvl_2618 (2.618) = phi^2 -> 2.618034 nine grid levels total: three conventions (0, 50, 100), five direct phi powers, one derived root (78.6) OK