12 March 2026 · Field notes
When a swing high is only a pause
A new extreme is not a new swing until the prior low has been respected or broken. The cohort spends a whole evening on that distinction.
The mark the room argues about
On the first Thursday of a cohort, someone always circles the latest peak and calls it the swing high. The pencil is usually right about the peak and early about the swing. A swing high, in the way this room uses the words, is the extreme that ends a push and is followed by a decline that breaks the last higher low. Until that low gives way, the peak is a pause inside the same push.
Kanya draws the distinction on paper, not in a definition read from a card. She covers the right-hand side of the sheet, asks the room to name the last completed swing, then uncovers one bar at a time. The peak that looked final often sits above a low that never broke.
What we write in the margin
The margin gets one of two words: pause, or turn. A pause keeps the prior swing's direction. A turn starts the count again. Students who trade from the sheet at home are asked to leave the order out of the margin. The margin is for the structure label only.
Volume is still covered on this evening. A tall bar at the peak tempts people to call a turn early. The cloth stays on the volume until the low has been tested on price alone. That delay is the whole point of the first two sittings.
A gold sheet from the June practice set
The practice set includes a gold chart from a June week in which price printed three higher peaks inside one push. Only the third was a turn, and only because the last higher low finally failed the next morning. The first two peaks were pauses with impatient labels.
If you sit the cohort, you will mark that sheet yourself. Bring a pencil you like. The academy pencils are soft, and some people prefer a harder point for small swings.