# Fuel — lesson

Gym heading: Know when not to trade (shelf 02; built for the /v3 preview, on the site since Sep 22 2026). Written before the code (Sep 21 2026), from the exhaustion read in the Sep 21 2026 order-flow transcript (aggression fading across successive pushes, as distinct from absorption inside one bar) and the volume-divergence read in the volume-profile transcript. The teach screen shows this text; the answer key implements the rule in it and nothing else. Distances are in M everywhere. Harness, confidence, persistence, and reveal format follow stop-vs-noise; the bars are Progress's chart (generator v2's opening, three pushes between authored swings); the delta strip is participation-vs-positioning's rendering.

Choices made where the transcripts were silent:

- Participation is net delta, not total volume: aggressive buys minus aggressive sells over the push's bars, in contracts. The strip shows every bar's net delta as a coloured bar and its whole volume faint behind it. Total volume is drawn without looking at the case, so the envelope carries nothing; the read is the coloured bars.
- A push's bars are the bars of its leg, from the bar after the swing low through the bar that made the swing high. The three pushes are bracketed under the strip and numbered.
- The rule wants the three sums to step one way and the third to be past a line against the first: 0.60 × or less for fading, 1.50 × or more for growing. Two out of three stepping one way is not a divergence. The ratio is read at two decimals.
- HOLDING comes in two kinds at config shares: the three sums do not step one way (a push in the middle that carried more, or less, than both its neighbours), or they step one way but the third stays inside the band. Some reps sit within 0.03 of a line on purpose (config share); the reveal shows the numbers either way.
- The pushes' shapes are drawn without looking at the case: the bars per push and pullback, the extensions and the pullback depths, the height from the first low to the third high, the opening's regime and the mirror. Progress's read is a nuisance here and the harness checks it carries nothing. The first push's delta share of its own volume is drawn from one range whatever the case; the second and third pushes' shares are the case.
- Outside the pushes every bar's delta follows its own body with noise, as in participation-vs-positioning; a pullback's bars lean the other way. The first push's net delta is always positive in the push's direction: a chart whose first push carried net selling is not this read and is rebuilt.
- The chart is 46 bars, frozen one to three bars after the third high. M is the median range of the last 20 bars.
- Half the charts are mirrored, buys and sells swapped with them: in a downtrend participation is net aggressive selling.
- The next 20 bars, and their strip, are drawn with follow rates that are config constants and are never shown; the reveal says what price did, in M from the last close, and nothing about how often.
- Soft clock 12 seconds: three groups of bars to weigh, one comparison.

Persistent header: **"Training your eye for whether participation is keeping up with price."**

## Before you add

- **A push** — A leg from a swing low to the next swing high. Three pushes are on every chart, the swings marked with triangles and the pushes bracketed under the strip: 1, 2, 3.
- **Net delta** — For each bar, aggressive buys minus aggressive sells. The strip under the chart shows it: the coloured bar is the net delta, up-colour for net buying and down-colour for net selling; the faint bar behind it is the bar's whole volume.
- **A push's participation** — The net delta of the push's bars added up: how much net aggressive buying carried the push, in contracts.
- **The rule** — FADING is each push carrying less net buying than the one before, and the third carrying 0.60 × the first or less. GROWING is each push carrying more than the one before, and the third carrying 1.50 × the first or more. HOLDING is anything else: the three do not step one way, or they step one way but the third stays inside the band.
- **Why it matters at the trade** — New highs on thinning participation are a reason to stop adding and to watch the next push for a failure (The second push). They are not a reason to sell: fading is a condition, not a trigger. Growing participation says the pushes are being paid for, and a pullback is where the trend's side has location. Holding changes nothing.
- **What it doesn't say** — This is executed aggression across three pushes. It does not show who still holds positions, how much passive liquidity remains, or what the fourth push does. Absorption inside one bar is Effort vs result. Whether the pushes are getting further is Progress; the reveal prints each push's extension beside its participation, so a push that got a long way on little net buying is visible as the pair of numbers it is.
- **The mirror** — In a downtrend the pushes go down and participation is net aggressive selling: sells minus buys.
- **Check measurements** — The three sums in contracts and the third against the first, at two decimals, are available before answering. They are the same rounded numbers the rule uses.
- **M** — The median high-to-low range of the last 20 bars. The reveal measures what followed in M. The number for the current chart is on the screen.
- **Confidence is a number** — Low means 40%, Medium 65%, High 90% that your call is right. Scored Brier-style: sure and wrong costs 0.81, unsure and wrong costs 0.16, sure and right costs 0.01. Being certain is as expensive as being wrong.

## The read

Three sums, one comparison: does each push carry less (or more) net buying than the one before, and is the third past the line against the first?

## The rep

Forty-six bars with the delta strip under them, frozen one to three bars after the third high, the swings marked and the three pushes bracketed under the strip. M is stated. The question, in full: **"Three pushes to new highs. Is the net aggressive buying behind them fading, growing, or holding?"** Fading, Growing, or Holding, with a confidence.

## The reveal

The chart again with each push's sum printed at its bracket and its extension in M beside it, then the next 20 bars with their strip. The banner, the answer, the ratio against the lines, the verdict, and one takeaway line. Templates:

- FADING: **"Push 3 carried {r} of push 1's net buying, and each push carried less than the last. Fading under this rule: a reason to stop adding and to watch the next push, not a reason to sell."**
- GROWING: **"Push 3 carried {r} × push 1's net buying, and each push carried more than the last. Growing under this rule: the pushes are being paid for; how far they run is unknown."**
- HOLDING, not one way: **"{P1}, {P2}, {P3} contracts: the three pushes do not step one way. No divergence under this rule."**
- HOLDING, inside the band: **"Push 3 carried {r} of push 1's net buying, inside the band. No divergence under this rule."**

Every rep ends on one of these lines. Each is a decision: stop adding and watch the next push, the pullback is where the trend's side has location, or nothing changes. Then what the next 20 bars did, in M. No win percentage is shown anywhere.

## Answer key

The pushes are Progress's: the last three swing highs and the last three swing lows, interleaved. Push k's bars run from the bar after its swing low through the bar that made its swing high. `Pk = Σ (buy − sell)` over push k's bars in an uptrend, `Σ (sell − buy)` in a downtrend. `r = round2(P3 / P1)`, with P1 > 0.

- **FADING**: P1 > P2 > P3 AND r ≤ 0.60.
- **GROWING**: P1 < P2 < P3 AND r ≥ 1.50.
- **HOLDING**: otherwise. Not one way when the three sums do not step monotonically; inside the band when they do and 0.60 < r < 1.50.

The three answers come up a third each (config); HOLDING's kinds at config shares. Nothing but the strip's sums carries the case: not the candles (extensions, pullbacks, bars per push and the chart's height are drawn whatever the case), not the total volume, not the first push's delta share, not M, not the opening's regime, not the mirror.