THE GYM FLOOR

Is this bar small, normal, or large against the last twenty? Which of two bars spans more? Wick-heavy bars fool people.

Everything downstream is a distance judgement, so this comes first. Twenty reps, five-second soft clock.

Two rep types. The ruler is defined before rep one and one click away after.

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Thirty bars frozen on the last one, the swings marked with small triangles, the last 15 bars marked off. Do the last three swing highs and the last three swing lows step the same way? UP, DOWN, or NONE.

A trend has a with-trend side and a fade side; no structure has neither, and every entry there is a guess at a direction the market hasn't chosen. Twenty reps, eight-second soft clock, confidence scored Brier-style.

The rule: a swing is a bar higher (or lower) than one bar on each side; inside the last 15 bars, the last three swing highs and the last three swing lows must each step the same way. Higher and higher is UP, lower and lower is DOWN, anything else is NONE. The three cases come up a third each.

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Three pushes in a trend, the swings marked. Did each push get further than the last and each pullback get shorter, the reverse, or neither? Gaining, Losing, or Neither. Four distances, two comparisons, all in M.

A trend that is gaining makes a pullback the location for a with-trend entry; a trend that is losing makes the old pullback depth no entry at all. It describes the last three pushes and does not forecast the fourth. Twenty reps, ten-second soft clock, confidence scored Brier-style.

The rule: the third extension against the second and the second pullback against the first, each a ratio read at two decimals. Gaining is the extension at 1.25 × or more and the pullback at 0.80 × or less; losing the mirror; neither anything else, including the two disagreeing. The three answers come up a third each; the bars per push, the chart's height, M and the opening carry none of them.

Same chart as Fuel, which reads whether participation kept up with these pushes.

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A chart frozen a few bars after price crossed a level, the touches circled, the margin drawn. Two closes beyond in a row, a close through and a close back, or neither yet? Accepted, Rejected or Undecided.

Trade with acceptance, fade rejection, do nothing while undecided: the state that costs the most to trade. Twenty reps, ten-second soft clock, confidence scored Brier-style.

The rule: two consecutive closes beyond the level by more than 0.10 M with no close back inside is acceptance; a close through then a close back on the original side is rejection; one close through, or wicks either way, is undecided. The three cases come up a third each.

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One level, the touches circled, any break-and-reclaim marked, frozen as price comes back to it, the count not printed. One touch never broken, two or three, or four and more or a break? Fresh, Tested, or Burned.

Count visits and breaks before assessing another approach. These labels do not measure remaining orders or predict the next reaction. Twenty reps, eight-second soft clock, confidence scored Brier-style.

The rule: a touch is a bar whose range includes the level, one per visit; a break-and-reclaim is a close through by more than 0.10 M then a close back. Fresh is one touch never broken, tested two or three never broken, burned four or more or broken once. The three answers come up a third each; nothing but the circles and the break mark carries them.

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A chart frozen a few bars after price went through a level, the touches circled. Does it meet the defined failed-breakout pattern? Trapped or Not trapped are pattern labels, not observed positions.

Classify the visible break and reclaim without assuming actual positions or stops. Twenty reps, ten-second soft clock, confidence scored Brier-style.

The rule: two or more touches, a close through the level, then a later close back on the original side by more than 0.10 M. Two closes beyond with no close back is the accepted case; fewer than two touches fails the level condition. The three cases come up a third each.

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The prior session's last 20 bars, a gap, this session's first five bars, the prior close drawn across, the gap size not printed. Is the gap nothing, an event already half retraced, or an event that's holding? No gap, Gap to fill, or Gap and go.

A small gap is ignored. A large gap makes the prior close the first level of the day: the fill is the trade in balance, the failure to fill is the trend tell. Twenty reps, eight-second soft clock, confidence scored Brier-style.

The rule: under 0.25 M is no gap; 0.5 M or more is an event, gap to fill when the first five bars retraced half the gap or more, gap and go when they extended or held. Between 0.25 and 0.5 M is ambiguous by design and scores as no gap. The three answers come up a third each; the gap size carries nothing between fill and go.

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The first 30 minutes of the cash session as six bars with the range drawn from them, then 6 to 14 more bars, frozen. Has a close left the range by more than the margin, and if so, has a close come back? Inside, Broke out, or Broke and failed.

Inside the range, no directional trade. First close outside, with-direction only. Close back inside, the first trap of the day, and the range edge is the level. Twenty reps, eight-second soft clock, confidence scored Brier-style.

The rule: the first close more than 0.10 M beyond an edge is the vote; a later close more than 0.10 M back inside that edge is the failure; no close beyond the margin is inside. Only closes count. The three cases come up a third each.

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The session from the 18:00 New York anchor, VWAP drawn from it, bands at ±0.25 M and ±0.5 M, frozen on the current bar. Is price at fair, stretched from a reference that's sitting still, or trending away from one that's moving? At fair, Stretched, or Trending.

"At the top" means stretched from VWAP in M with a flat VWAP, never the highest recent candle; fading a leg is the honeypot. Twenty reps, eight-second soft clock, confidence scored Brier-style.

The rule: within 0.25 M is at fair; beyond 0.5 M with the VWAP moving under 0.05 M a bar over the last 12 bars is stretched; beyond 0.5 M with the VWAP moving 0.05 M a bar or more toward price is trending. Between 0.25 and 0.5 M is ambiguous by design and scores as at fair. The three answers come up a third each.

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Forty bars with the session's volume profile beside them, VAH, POC and VAL drawn, frozen on the current bar. Is the last close inside value, above it, or below it? Inside, Above, or Below.

Inside value the POC is the magnet and the edges fade toward it; outside value the only question is acceptance, and chasing without it is the honeypot. Twenty reps, six-second soft clock, confidence scored Brier-style.

The rule: the value area is the 70% of the session's volume around the POC, counted in rows of 0.1 M; the last close above VAH is above value, below VAL is below, between them inside. The three answers come up a third each.

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Five session profiles side by side, oldest on the left, each with its value area shaded and its POC marked; no prices, no labels, no dates. Are the value areas stepping up, stepping down, or landing in the same band? Up, Down, or Balance.

This is the read before any level or any candle: it sets the path of least resistance and which side of the market you are willing to be on today. Value up, pullbacks into discount are where longs have location; value down, rallies into premium are where shorts do; balance, the edges are fades and the middle is nothing. Twenty reps, eight-second soft clock, confidence scored Brier-style.

The rule: a transition moves the value area higher when VAL and VAH both rise; up is three of the four transitions higher and the fifth VAL above the first POC, down the mirror, balance neither. The three answers come up a third each; the extremes carry nothing the value areas do not, and a quarter or more of the trend reps hold a session whose high or low steps against the migration.

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Forty to sixty bars: an impulse leg with both its swings marked, a fixed-range volume profile over exactly those bars, VAH, POC and VAL extended forward, price retraced into or past the range, frozen on the current bar. Where is price now? Premium, Discount, or Middle.

Location comes before any trigger: a rally into premium is where shorts belong, a pullback into discount is where longs belong, and fading from the middle is paying full price for a trade with neither location nor room. Twenty reps, six-second soft clock, confidence scored Brier-style.

The rule: the profile is the leg's bars only, its value area the 70% of the leg's volume around its POC in rows of 0.1 M; the last close above VAH is premium, below VAL discount, between them middle. The three answers come up a third each; the leg's length, height and direction, the bars since it ended and the bar count carry none of them.

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An impulse leg with both swings marked, the five levels drawn across the retracement and the pocket shaded, nothing labelled, frozen on the current bar. Where is the last close? Outside the pocket, not past 886, In the pocket, or Past the 886.

Look for the trade in the pocket, wait if price is short of it, drop the idea entirely past the 886: a level that tells you when to stop looking is worth more than one that tells you where to enter. Twenty reps, eight-second soft clock, confidence scored Brier-style.

The rule: the last close's retracement of the leg, 0 at the swing that ended it, 1 at the swing that started it. Under 0.62 is short of the pocket; 0.62 to 0.705 inclusive is in it; beyond 0.886 is past the 886, the idea dead. Between 0.705 and 0.886 is past the pocket but alive and scores as outside the pocket, not past 886. The three answers come up a third each; the leg's length, the bar counts and the pocket's place on the screen carry nothing.

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A delta strip under the bars — aggressive buys minus aggressive sells, each bar's whole volume drawn faint behind it — and one bar at the level marked. Three kinds of rep. Was that load absorbed or did it go through? Absorbed, Through, or Can't tell yet. Two panels with identical candles and identical volume bars and nothing different but the strips: which shows seller absorption? Left, Right, or Neither. And after a break and a close back through: which side made the qualifying load now? Longs, Shorts, or Nobody.

Volume tells you how many. The tape tells you who, and what happened to them. Two breakouts print the same volume bar; one is the crowd being right and the other is the crowd being fed to a passive seller sitting at the level. Twenty reps, ten-second soft clock (twelve on the two-panel reps), confidence scored Brier-style.

The rule: a load is a bar whose range includes the level, whose volume is 1.5× the median of the 12 bars before it, and whose delta is 45% or more of its own volume. Absorbed when the furthest of the next three closes is 0.5 M or less past the level in the aggressor's direction, through at 1.0 M or more, can't tell yet between them. On the two-panel reps price held at the level in both, so the panel whose load was aggressive selling is the buy and two buy loads is Neither. On the break reps every chart breaks and comes back, so the shape carries nothing: a loaded break traps the side that made it, an unloaded one traps nobody. Each kind's three answers come up a third each; the load's volume and delta share are drawn without looking at the answer everywhere except the break reps, where they are the rule; and half the two-panel reps move the running delta onto the buy, against the panel the load puts it on, so summing the strip is a coin flip either way.

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Ten candles into the extreme of a move, then the signal bar opened up as a ladder: aggressive buys and sells at every price it traded, the delta per row, the POC, O / H / L / C marked. Did the side that stacked at the extreme get paid, get absorbed, or was no one stacked? Absorption, Effort paid, or Nothing.

Absorption at the extreme of a location is the confirmation to trade against the aggressors; effort that gets paid is the reason to sit on your hands. The trigger, the last 5 to 10% of the trade. Twenty reps, ten-second soft clock, confidence scored Brier-style.

The rule: stacked when the aggressors' delta share in the extreme third of the bar's rows is 0.30 or more (65% of the volume there); stacked and closed in the far half is absorption, stacked and closed in the near quarter is effort paid, not stacked is nothing. The three answers come up a third each, half at a top and half at a bottom. The candle's shape is drawn without looking at the case; only the ladder and the close carry it.

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A push to a high, a pullback, a second push, frozen one to four bars after it; the first push's high and the pullback low drawn with their margin bands. Did the second push fail lower, and has a close under the pullback low confirmed it? Failed, followed through; Failed, not yet; or Not failed.

The failure to reach is a condition, not a trigger: the close through the pullback low is the trigger, and above the first push's high is where the idea is wrong. Twenty reps, ten-second soft clock, confidence scored Brier-style.

The rule: failed lower is the second push's high more than 0.10 M under the first push's high; follow-through is a later close more than 0.10 M under the pullback low. Both is followed through, the first alone is not yet, neither is not failed. The three answers come up a third each; in the not-failed third half the reps carry a close under the pullback low, so the closes alone carry nothing.

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Three kinds of rep in one session. Translate: a chart with its window marked, which mechanism is this and where is the level that matters? Compression, Failed break, Both, or Neither, with a click on the level or No level. Un-translate: a name and four charts, which one is it? Trigger: a pattern with its level drawn, frozen at the right edge, the last bar maybe still forming: is the close through in yet? Yes, No, or Can't tell.

Head and shoulders, wedges, flags, cups: almost every textbook pattern is compression before expansion or a failed break, wearing a costume. The name tells you what the crowd is looking at; the mechanism tells you which read the shape is asking for; the close through the level is the trigger, not the shape. Twenty reps, ten-second soft clock (eight on trigger reps), confidence scored Brier-style.

The rule: compression when the rolling envelope over the last third of the window is at most half the loud part before it; a failed break when a level with two touches was pushed through by more than 0.30 M without acceptance and the last close is back inside; both when both; neither otherwise, an expanding range included. The level is the coil's flat edge or the level that failed; the trigger a close through it by more than 0.10 M. Translate 8, un-translate 6, trigger 6 of the twenty; the mechanisms at 35 / 30 / 10 / 25, trigger answers a third each; the pattern name is revealed after the answer, never before.

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Today's thirty bars beside a strip of the last twenty sessions' M, drawn at the same scale, M not shown. Is today under the 20th percentile, over the 80th, or between? Dead, Normal, or Hot.

Dead, normal and hot describe relative movement only. They do not establish a setup, stop or target room. Twenty reps, eight-second soft clock, confidence scored Brier-style.

The rule: dead when fewer than four of the twenty sessions were quieter than today (today's M under the fourth-smallest), hot when fewer than four were faster (over the fourth-largest), normal otherwise. The three cases come up a third each.

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Thirty bars, the last ten bracketed, frozen, no number shown. How far did price get against how far it travelled? Leg, Churn, or In-between.

A clean leg is a trend to join or leave alone, never fade; churn is a range, fade the edges, never chase the middle. Twenty reps, eight-second soft clock, confidence scored Brier-style.

The rule: the net move over the last 10 bars divided by the path those bars travelled, close to close, both in M. 0.6 or more is a leg, 0.3 or less is churn, and the band between is in-between by design. The three answers come up a third each; the colours of the bars carry none of them.

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Three pushes to new highs with the delta strip under them, the pushes bracketed. Add up each push's net aggressive buying: is it fading, growing, or holding? Fading, Growing, or Holding.

New highs on thinning participation are a reason to stop adding and to watch the next push for a failure, not a reason to sell; growing participation says the pushes are being paid for. Twenty reps, twelve-second soft clock, confidence scored Brier-style.

The rule: each push's net delta, buys minus sells over its bars. Fading is each push carrying less than the last and the third at 0.60 × the first or less; growing each carrying more and the third at 1.50 × or more; holding anything else, including three sums that do not step one way. The three answers come up a third each; the candles, the total volume and the first push's delta share carry none of them.

Same chart as Progress, which reads whether the pushes got further; the reveal here prints each push's extension beside its participation.

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A chart frozen at a decision point with a line on it. Click the one bar that says sell (or buy, on the flipped charts). About a third of the charts have no such bar, and saying so is the right answer.

If you can't point, you're manufacturing. Twenty reps, ten-second soft clock, confidence scored Brier-style.

The rule and its sources: two touches make a level here, a pierce is any trade beyond the zone, the close back through is the signal, a later reclaim cancels it.

Forty bars with the structure triangles, the VWAP and its bands, and the value profile drawn, a side proposed at the last close, frozen. Four reads vote on that side. Separate support, neutrality, and opposition.

Choose FOR, NEUTRAL, or AGAINST for each read, then classify the evidence. All four reads and the verdict must be correct. Twenty reps, thirty-second soft clock, confidence scored on the complete response.

The rule: at least three FOR and zero AGAINST is Supported. Fewer than three FOR with zero AGAINST is Unconfirmed. Both FOR and AGAINST is Conflicted. AGAINST with no FOR is Opposed. NEUTRAL adds neither confirmation nor opposition. These categories do not recommend a trade.

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An entry at the last close, a proposed stop, and the last completed swing marked. Does the stop meet both measured distance rules? Check measurements is available for close calls. A pass does not guarantee protection from future movement.

A stop inside the noise is a coin flip against a doji. Twenty reps, eight-second soft clock, confidence scored Brier-style.

The rule: the stop's distance is at least 1.5 × the median range of the last 12 bars, and it sits beyond the last completed swing. Both, or the doji takes it.

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Two days side by side, the same ten-point box around the last close on both, M not shown. On which chart is the box inside the noise? Left, Right, Both, or Neither.

A number in points has no meaning until you know what M is today. Twenty reps, eight-second soft clock, confidence scored Brier-style.

The rule: the band is inside noise on a chart when its height is less than 1.0 M for that chart. Same ten points, two rulers. The four cases come up a quarter each.

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An entry at the last close, a proposed target, and a given reference map whose formation is not shown. Using only this supplied map, is the target within half the distance to the nearest level ahead? Yes or No.

Half the room is a veto, never a target-setter. Twenty reps, eight-second soft clock, confidence scored Brier-style.

The rule: the target sits inside the first half of the room to the nearest level on its side of the entry. Past the level, or in the far half, and the trade doesn't exist at that target.

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Forty bars, given reference levels above and below whose formation is not shown, the last completed swing marked, and an entry at the last close. Using only the supplied map, stop by the rule and target at half the room: does this bracket clear 1.5? Check measurements supplies the numeric inputs for close calls.

A right read with no room is not a trade. Twenty reps, ten-second soft clock, confidence scored Brier-style.

The rule: the stop is the farther of 0.10 M beyond the last completed swing and 1.5 × the median range of the last 12 bars; the target is half the room to the nearest level on the trade's side; R:R is target over stop, and the bracket clears at 1.5. Half the reps clear; half the misses sit at 1.20–1.49. The reveal draws both legs, does the arithmetic, then shows the next 20 bars.

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