Direct Answer

Andrews' Pitchfork is a charting tool, developed by Alan Andrews, drawn from three user-selected pivot points (P1, P2, P3): a median line runs from P1 through the midpoint of the line connecting P2 and P3, and two parallel lines, sometimes called the tines, run through P2 and P3, parallel to the median line. The resulting three parallel lines form a fork shape that some traders use to visualize a potential trend channel and its central tendency, though the pivot-point selection behind it is subjective and the tool is not a guarantee of future support, resistance, or channel behavior.

Key Takeaways

  • Andrews' Pitchfork is built from three pivot points, P1, P2, and P3, chosen by the person drawing the chart.
  • The median line runs from P1 through the midpoint of the line connecting P2 and P3.
  • Two additional lines, the tines, are drawn through P2 and P3, parallel to the median line, forming the fork shape.
  • Some traders use the three lines to visualize a potential trend channel and the median line as a central-tendency reference within it.
  • Because pivot-point selection is subjective, two traders can draw materially different pitchforks on the same chart, the tool's usefulness is a commonly cited but contested part of technical analysis, not a guarantee of future price behavior.

What Is Andrews' Pitchfork?

Andrews' Pitchfork is a drawing tool developed by Alan Andrews that turns three chart pivot points into three parallel lines: a central median line and two outer lines, or tines, running above and below it. The result resembles the shape of a garden fork, hence the name, and it's used by some traders as a visual reference for a potential trend channel, with the median line representing that channel's central tendency.

Unlike an indicator calculated purely from a price formula, the pitchfork depends entirely on which three pivot points the person drawing it selects. That makes it a discretionary, chart-reading tool rather than a mechanical calculation, and it's why the pitchfork's usefulness is commonly discussed but also contested among traders, the same price history can produce different-looking pitchforks depending on which swing highs or lows are chosen as P1, P2, and P3.

How Andrews' Pitchfork Is Drawn

The construction happens in a fixed sequence, once the three pivot points are chosen:

  1. Select three pivot points, P1, P2, and P3, in chronological order on the chart, typically alternating swing highs and lows that a trader judges to represent the recent trend structure.
  2. Draw the median line starting at P1 and running through the midpoint of the straight line connecting P2 and P3.
  3. Draw the upper tine through P2, parallel to the median line.
  4. Draw the lower tine through P3, parallel to the median line.

All three lines are parallel to one another by construction, only the median line's starting point (P1) and the fixed midpoint calculation give it its distinct path, while the two tines are simply that same slope shifted to pass through P2 and P3 respectively. The three lines together form the fork shape the tool is named for.

Worked Example

Hypothetical example, for education only.

Suppose a trader identifies three pivot points on a stock's chart: a swing low at P1 = $40, a subsequent swing high at P2 = $52, and a later swing low at P3 = $44.

A close-up view of stationery essentials including pencil, sharpener, eraser, ruler, and compass.
Photo by Christina & Peter via Pexels

Midpoint of P2 and P3 = (52 + 44) ÷ 2 = $48

The median line is drawn starting from P1 ($40) and running through that $48 midpoint. The upper tine is then drawn parallel to the median line, passing through P2 ($52). The lower tine is drawn parallel to the median line as well, passing through P3 ($44).

The result is three parallel lines: the median line running through the calculated midpoint, and the two tines bracketing it above and through P2 and below and through P3. In this hypothetical case, price sitting between the two tines would visually fall inside the fork; the median line running through the middle would represent the central tendency some traders reference within that range. None of this implies price will actually stay inside the fork going forward, it's a visual construction from three chosen points, not a forecast.

How Traders Use Andrews' Pitchfork

Some traders treat the pitchfork's three lines as reference levels rather than a mechanical signal generator, most commonly in these ways, all of them discretionary and none guaranteed to repeat:

  • Channel reference, the space between the two tines is sometimes read as a potential trend channel, with price movement toward either tine watched as it approaches the edge of that visualized range.
  • Median line as central tendency, the median line is sometimes used as a reference for where price is "leaning" within the channel, similarly to how a moving average is sometimes read relative to price, though the pitchfork's median line is fixed by the three chosen pivots rather than recalculated bar by bar.
  • Reaction at the tines, some traders watch for price to slow down, reverse, or accelerate through a tine as informal support or resistance, treating a clean break through a tine as a change in the visualized trend structure.

None of these uses are backed by a fixed rule in the pitchfork's own construction, the definition only describes how the three lines are drawn from the three chosen points. How price behaves relative to those lines afterward is an open, debated question among traders, not something built into the tool itself.

Limitations and Common Mistakes

  • Pivot-point selection is subjective, two traders looking at the same chart can choose different P1, P2, and P3 points and end up with two differently sloped, differently positioned pitchforks.
  • Hindsight bias in pivot choice, it's easy to pick pivot points after the fact that make a pitchfork look like it "worked," which isn't the same as the tool reliably identifying useful pivots in real time as a chart develops.
  • No built-in reliability guarantee, the definition of the pitchfork describes a geometric construction from three points, not a statement about how often price respects the resulting lines; treating a pitchfork as a forecast overstates what the tool actually does.
  • Ignoring the trend context it was drawn in, a pitchfork built from pivots inside a strong, ongoing trend can behave very differently once that trend changes, since the three lines don't update themselves as new pivots form.
  • Using it in isolation, because the tool is entirely dependent on discretionary point selection, many traders pair it with other price-structure or volume evidence rather than acting on the pitchfork's lines alone.

Everything Depends on Three Points You Chose

An Andrews pitchfork is fully determined by three pivots, and the tool contributes nothing beyond drawing lines from them. Whatever analytical value the construction has comes from the pivot selection, and that selection has no rule attached to it.

Colorful school supplies arranged with an apple on a white surface, ideal for education themes.
Photo by Atlantic Ambience via Pexels

Make the selection explicit and stable. Choose pivots that are significant on the timeframe you are trading, note them, and leave the fork in place while it remains relevant. A pitchfork redrawn each week from newly convenient pivots always fits and never informs, which is the ordinary way this tool is misused.

The behaviour worth knowing is that price is not expected to spend most of its time near the median line. The original description treats the median line as a magnet that price approaches and frequently fails to reach, and the failures are treated as informative. A fork evaluated on whether price touches the centre line is being evaluated against a claim it does not make.

The construction also has no invalidation of its own. Price can leave the fork entirely and the lines remain on the chart, so a rule for when to abandon a fork has to be supplied by the analyst.

Andrews' Pitchfork FAQs

Who developed Andrews' Pitchfork?

Andrews' Pitchfork was developed by Alan Andrews. It's drawn from three user-selected pivot points and remains a commonly cited tool for visualizing a potential trend channel, though selecting the three pivot points is itself a subjective, contested step.

How do you draw an Andrews' Pitchfork?

Select three pivot points, P1, P2, and P3, in sequence on a chart. Draw a median line from P1 through the midpoint of the line connecting P2 and P3. Then draw two more lines, parallel to the median line, passing through P2 and P3. The three parallel lines form the fork shape.

What do the three lines of a pitchfork represent?

The median line, drawn from P1 through the midpoint of P2 and P3, represents a central tendency some traders use as a reference for the trend's midline. The two outer lines, sometimes called the tines, pass through P2 and P3 and run parallel to the median line, sketching a potential channel around it.

Is Andrews' Pitchfork a reliable trading signal?

No single drawing tool is a reliable signal on its own. The pitchfork's construction is entirely dependent on which three pivot points a trader selects, that selection is subjective, and the resulting lines describe a potential channel rather than a guaranteed one.

How is Andrews' Pitchfork different from a standard trend channel?

A standard trend channel is typically drawn from two parallel trendlines connecting swing highs and swing lows directly. A pitchfork instead anchors its three lines to three specific pivot points and a calculated midpoint, adding a median line as a central-tendency reference that a two-line channel doesn't have.

Can Andrews' Pitchfork be used on any timeframe or market?

The construction method itself doesn't depend on a specific timeframe or asset class, since it only requires three pivot points on a price chart. How well the resulting lines hold up as support, resistance, or a channel reference varies by market and by how clearly defined the underlying pivots are, and that variation is part of why the methodology stays contested among traders.

What is the median line supposed to represent?

In the method's own terms, the median line is where price is expected to gravitate, with the outer lines marking the extremes of the channel around it. This rests on an assumption that price oscillates around a central tendency defined by the three chosen pivots. The assumption holds when the pivots capture a genuine repeating structure and fails when they were selected arbitrarily, which is why pivot choice does most of the work.

What happens when price fails to reach the median line?

Practitioners read a failure to reach the median as a sign the structure is weakening, since the tool's central expectation was not met. It is frequently followed by a test of the outer line in the opposite direction. Like most pitchfork readings, this is a convention within the method rather than a demonstrated tendency, and it is most useful as a prompt to reassess the pivots.

How should a pitchfork be handled once price breaks outside the outer lines?

A sustained move beyond an outer line means the structure the three pivots described is no longer governing price, which is a reason to redraw on newer pivots rather than to extend the existing fork. Keeping a broken pitchfork on the chart and reinterpreting its lines as support or resistance imports meaning the construction does not support.

References