Chart patterns · Intermediate

The Measured Move Pattern

Two legs of similar size, and the assumption quietly powering almost every pattern target you have ever used.

Last reviewed 15 September 2026 by the MarketPro research desk · Editorial policy

In short

A measured move, or AB=CD, is a structure of two similarly sized directional legs separated by a corrective pause: leg AB, correction BC, then leg CD expected to travel roughly the same distance as AB. Adding the AB distance to point C gives the projected objective D. The same symmetry assumption underlies the target conventions used for flags, triangles, rectangles and head and shoulders patterns.

What to remember

Every measured target in charting is this pattern with different labels, which means every one rests on an assumption of symmetry rather than on something the market promised.
It gives you a target, not an entry. Using it means positioning inside a correction whose end you are estimating.
Legs of 0.7 and 1.6 times the first are both common, so treat D as a zone and take partial profit into it.
Its best use is answering one question early: is there enough room in this trade to be worth taking at all?

Lesson 19 of 22 in Chart patterns

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A measured move, often written AB=CD, is a structure of two similarly sized directional legs separated by a corrective pause. The first leg runs from A to B, the correction runs from B to C, and the second leg from C to D is expected to travel roughly the same distance as the first. It matters far beyond its own name, because it is the engine behind almost every measured target in classical charting.

The general case behind every pattern target

Look at the target conventions used elsewhere and the same idea appears each time. A flag projects the pole from the breakout. A head and shoulders projects the head-to-neckline distance below the break. A triangle projects its height. A rectangle projects its range. Every one of those is a measured move with the legs labelled differently.

Understanding that has a practical payoff. Once you know all of these rest on an assumption of symmetry between two legs, you can stop treating a projected target as something the pattern knows and start treating it as something the convention assumes. The assumption is reasonable, because markets that move in one direction tend to do so in comparable units of effort. It is not a law, and the number it produces is a planning reference rather than a level price owes anyone.

AB=CD on EUR/USD, step by step

Say EUR/USD rises from 1.0700 (A) to 1.0840 (B), a 140 pip leg. It then corrects 61.8 percent of that move to 1.0754 (C). The measured projection adds the AB distance to C: 1.0754 plus 140 pips gives 1.0894 as D. The Fibonacci calculator produces both the retracement and the projection from the same two swing points.

The structure gives you a target, not an entry, and that distinction is where most of the practical difficulty sits. To use it you have to be positioned before C is finished, which means acting inside a correction whose end you are guessing at. If you buy at 1.0762 with a stop at 1.0736 below the correction low, that is 26 pips of risk for 132 pips to D, which prices well precisely because you accepted the uncertainty about where C ends.

Run the objective through the profit calculator at your intended size before you commit. A measured move's real usefulness is answering one question early: is there enough room in this trade to be worth taking at all? If D sits 30 pips away and your stop has to be 25, the structure has already told you to leave it.

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What the symmetry assumption gets wrong

CD is frequently not equal to AB. Legs of 0.7 and 1.6 times the first are both common. Treating D as a zone rather than a price, and taking partial profit into it, handles that better than a single limit order sitting at an exact number.
Trends stack measured moves. In a strong trend, D becomes the new A and the whole structure repeats. Exiting the entire position at the first D in a trending market is how people end up watching a move they correctly identified continue without them.
Ranges truncate them. In a range, the CD leg often stops near the middle of the prior swing and reverses. The same structure, in a different environment, produces a different outcome.
Retrospective labelling. Any three swings can be labelled A, B and C after the fact. The test is whether you wrote down D before price got there.

Where the correction lands, and why it matters

The depth of the BC correction carries information even though it does not change the projection arithmetic. A shallow correction, around 38 to 50 percent, suggests buyers were unwilling to wait for a discount, which is consistent with a strong CD leg. A deep correction past 78 percent means most of the first leg has been given back, and at that point the structure is closer to a double bottom than to a measured move.

Neither observation is a signal on its own. Both are useful for deciding how much confidence to place in the projection, and therefore how much of the position to take off early.

Mark D before you enter, and exit in two parts

Use it as a planning tool at the moment you are deciding whether to take a trade, not as a reason to take one. Mark A and B as soon as the first leg is complete. Write down the projected D before entering. Compare that distance with the stop the trade requires, and if the ratio does not clear your minimum, pass without negotiating.

Then plan the exit in two parts: a partial into the D zone and a decision about the remainder based on whether price is behaving like a trend or a range when it gets there. That is a more durable approach than a single target, and it is the same logic that applies to every measured objective in this category. The discipline of fixing risk before admiring reward is set out in risk management.

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Written and reviewed by the MarketPro research desk

MarketPro is a trading-signal and trading-education app operated by Harajuku Holdings LTD (Cyprus). Our signal desk publishes and tracks every trade idea in-app, and every page here is checked against the app's live behaviour before publishing. Last reviewed 15 September 2026. How we produce signals and content · About MarketPro

FAQ

The Measured Move Pattern: questions

How do you calculate a measured move target?

Measure the distance of the first leg from A to B, then add that same distance to the end of the correction at point C. If AB runs 140 pips from 1.0700 to 1.0840 and the correction ends at 1.0754, the projected D sits at 1.0894. Treat the result as a reference zone rather than an exact price, because second legs frequently come in shorter or run considerably further.

Is AB=CD the same as a measured move?

They describe the same structure, with AB=CD being the harmonic trading name and measured move the older classical-charting term. Harmonic practitioners usually add ratio requirements to the correction and sometimes to the second leg, while the classical version only assumes the two legs are roughly equal. The underlying idea, that a market tends to move in comparable units of effort, is identical.

How deep should the BC correction be?

Commonly somewhere between 38 and 78 percent of the first leg, with shallower corrections suggesting buyers or sellers were unwilling to wait for a better price. Depth does not change the projection arithmetic, but it does affect how much confidence the structure deserves. Once the correction retraces most of the first leg, you are looking at something closer to a double bottom or double top than a measured move.

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