In technical analysis, a chart pattern, peculiar to securities, in which only the significant value changes of a security, a futures contract, or a market average are recorded. The vertical axis represents price, but, unlike nearly all other charts, no variable, including time, is plotted on the horizontal axis. Entries on a point-and-figure chart are made only when a variable changes by a predetermined amount, for example, by one point or two points. A period of days may pass before an entry is recorded. Compare bar chart, line chart.