PatternGrade vs ChartMill
ChartMill is a multi-factor stock analysis and screening platform. Here is where the two differ, and what PatternGrade is built to do.
The short answer
PatternGrade grades the setup in front of you. Its whole job is judging how cleanly a chart matches a named pattern, then publishing the rules it applied to reach that grade. ChartMill's centre of gravity is a multi-factor rating that summarises a company across technical, fundamental, valuation and growth measures. When the question is which of tonight's cup-and-handle setups is the cleanest, PatternGrade is the tool built to answer it.
Where PatternGrade and ChartMill differ
| PatternGrade | ChartMill | |
|---|---|---|
| What gets rated | The setup. A grade measures how cleanly this chart matches this pattern's structural rules. | The stock. Technical, fundamental, valuation and growth ratings combined into an overall assessment. |
| Pattern library | 75 named patterns, each with a public reference page covering its structure and what the grade measures. | Chart-pattern recognition alongside a large general screener, with educational documentation per pattern. |
| Published performance | Grading rules and thresholds published per pattern; no performance figures published. | Ratings are documented in methodology terms; per-pattern detection rules are not published in the same detail. |
| Market focus | Covers every liquid US stock (~4,500 names), graded after every US close. | US and European markets. |
| What the analysis reads | Price, volume and structure, read closely, so the grade is about the chart and only the chart. | Extensive fundamentals, central to the product rather than an add-on. |
Why traders choose PatternGrade
- You want the setup graded rather than the company scored.
- You want a grade that means one specific, checkable thing about the chart rather than a blended multi-factor rating.
- You want a scanner that runs the same rules every night and produces the same grade on the same chart.
PatternGrade rescans every liquid US stock after each close for 75 patterns and grades every hit on its structure. How detection and grading work, and why no performance figures are published, is set out in the methodology, and every pattern has its own reference page. A grade describes chart structure, and target and stop levels are reference levels drawn from a pattern's geometry. PatternGradedoesn't give buy or sell recommendations.
Questions people ask
Does ChartMill detect chart patterns?
Yes, and it documents the patterns it covers. The difference is what the rating describes. ChartMill's scores summarise the stock across several factors, while a PatternGrade grade says how cleanly this particular chart matches this particular pattern. A grade describes chart structure rather than company quality, and PatternGrade doesn't give buy or sell recommendations.
Which markets does PatternGrade cover?
Every liquid US stock, ~4,500 US stocks, graded after every US close. Coverage reaches well past the index names, so a clean setup in a mid-cap is graded by exactly the same rules as one in a mega-cap.
Which has better pattern coverage?
PatternGrade runs 75 scanners and publishes a reference page for each, which is a deep library for a tool this focused. ChartMill covers patterns inside a much broader product. Counting patterns across two tools that define them differently tells you little; the more useful question is whether the output comes back ranked, and whether the rules behind that ranking are published.
Other comparisons
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Everything above was written from each product's own public documentation.