Invest brief · Fri Oct 30, 2026

Chart-lesson glossary

Lessons taught so far

L1 · Trend is a staircase (HH/HL vs LH/LL)

An uptrend is a series of higher swing highs and higher swing lows; a downtrend is lower highs and lower lows. Mixed swings = no trend.
Spot it: Find swing points: a bar whose high (low) is the highest (lowest) of the 5 bars on each side. Compare the last two swing highs and last two swing lows. HH + HL = uptrend; LH + LL = downtrend; anything else = mixed/sideways. Warning: first lower high after a run of HH. Break: a daily close under the last higher low.
Implies: Lower high = yellow light (stop treating dips as buys). Close under the last higher low = red light; wait for a new higher low and a reclaim of a recent swing high. · lesson page

L2 · Candle anatomy: body, wicks, close location

Body = open to close; wicks = prices that were rejected. Where the close lands inside the day's range shows who won the day.
Spot it: Close location = (close - low) / (high - low). Top 25% of the range = buyers won; bottom 25% = sellers won. Long wick = wick at least 50% of the day's range. Weight it by volume vs the 50-day average (>1.0x counts, light volume doesn't).
Implies: Use it as context only; check volume and the trend (Lesson 1) before trusting it. · lesson page

L3 · Weekend drill: spot the trend

Practice labelling charts up / down / sideways from the last two or three swings.
Spot it: Ignore the last few candles; use swings. The 21 EMA's slope usually agrees with the staircase.
Implies: Drill only, nothing to act on. · lesson page

L4 · Weekend review + quiz (L1-3)

Recap of trend staircase, candle anatomy and spotting the trend.
Implies: Review only, nothing to act on. · lesson page

L5 · Reversal candles in context (hammer, shooting star, engulfing)

A one-day reversal shape. Hammer: small body in the top third, lower wick at least 2x the body. Shooting star: mirror image. Engulfing: today's body fully covers yesterday's opposite-color body.
Spot it: Hammer: lower wick >= 2x body, close in top third of range. Shooting star: upper wick >= 2x body, close in bottom third. Bullish/bearish engulfing: opposite color to prior day, body covers prior body. Context: is it at a meaningful high/low? Volume above the 50-day average? Does the next day confirm?
Implies: Treat as a watchlist flag until the next session confirms (follows through) and volume backs it. · lesson page

L6 · Gaps: breakaway, runaway, exhaustion

A gap is empty space: today's low above yesterday's high (gap up) or today's high below yesterday's low (gap down). Breakaway leaves a base on heavy volume; runaway happens mid-trend; exhaustion comes late after a big run and fills fast; common gaps sit inside ranges and fill.
Spot it: Gap size >= 2% (open vs prior close) in the last 15 sessions. Volume >= 1.5x the prior 50-day average = meaningful. Breakaway: gap clears the prior 20-day high/low. Runaway: mid-trend. Exhaustion: after a +50% run in ~3 months. Filled = price trades back through the prior day's high (gap up) / low (gap down).
Implies: A breakaway/runaway gap that holds is strength; its lower edge is the level. A late gap that closes weak and fills fast = tighten up, don't add. · lesson page

L7 · Support & resistance basics

Support is a price zone where dips repeatedly got bought; resistance is a zone where rallies repeatedly stalled. Zones, not lines; at least two touches.
Spot it: Swing highs/lows in the last ~6 months clustered within ~1.5% of each other. At least 2 touches = a zone. Mark the nearest support below and nearest resistance above; within 3% of a zone = at an edge. A break = a daily close clearly beyond the zone, ideally on above-average volume, that holds.
Implies: Near support: stop can sit just under the zone (small risk). Jammed under resistance: little room. In the middle: wait. · lesson page

L8 · Role reversal (old resistance becomes support)

Once price closes through a ceiling and stays there, the same zone often becomes the floor on the next pullback (and a broken floor often becomes a ceiling).
Spot it: A zone with >= 2 swing-high touches (resistance) that later saw daily closes above it. Today's close within 0-4% above that zone = retest as support. Mirror: a floor (>= 2 swing-low touches) that broke, with price now 0-4% below it = test as resistance.
Implies: Wait for the pullback into the flipped zone on lighter volume and a close back up; stop just under the band. Decisive close back through = flip failed. · lesson page

L9 · Round numbers & prior highs

Prices like $100/$400 and prior highs attract selling and stalls. A round number is a zone, not a line; the first close through is the tell.
Spot it: Nearest round number (step scaled to price) within 2.5% of the close. Prior 52-week high within 3% of the close. Has price closed through it yet? On volume above average?
Implies: Avoid buying just under; wait for a close through on volume or a pullback that holds from above. Don't park stops exactly on the round number. · lesson page

L10 · Weekend drill: spot support & resistance

Practice finding the ceiling, the floor, and where price sits now.
Spot it: Zones a few dollars wide; >= 2 touches.
Implies: Drill only, nothing to act on. · lesson page

L11 · Weekend review (L5-10 on one chart)

Recap of reversal candles, gaps, S/R, role reversal, round numbers.
Implies: Review only, nothing to act on. · lesson page

L12 · Trendlines & channels done right

A trendline lays a ruler across Lesson 1's staircase: in an uptrend connect two rising swing lows (in a downtrend, falling highs). Two points draw it; a third touch that holds confirms it. A break means the trend changed character, not necessarily reversed.
Spot it: Anchor on the two most recent real swing lows where the second is higher (uptrend) or two falling swing highs (downtrend). No meaningful closes beyond the line between anchors; pokes under 1% are noise. Today's line value vs close: within 2% = at the line; close beyond it = break (judged on closes).
Implies: Buy interest belongs near a tested rising line, not at the channel top. A close under a steep line = stop adding, tighten up, redraw from structure. · lesson page

L13 · Ranges vs trends (when to sit out)

In a trend price stays on one side of a sloping 21 EMA; in a range the highs and lows repeat and price keeps crossing a flat 21 EMA. Trend tools get chopped up in ranges.
Spot it: Count closes crossing the 21 EMA over the last 60 sessions: <= 2 = trending; >= 6 = range-like. 21 EMA slope over 20 sessions: flat (|change| < 2%) supports range. Range box = highest high / lowest low of the last 60 sessions; middle third = no-trade zone.
Implies: In a range: trade only the edges or sit out; alert above the ceiling and wait for a close outside the box on volume, then a hold. Sitting out is a position. · lesson page

L15 · Inside days & tight closes, read weekly-first (folds in L14 multi-timeframe; L14 slot on Oct 22 was not produced)

When a stock stops swinging and starts printing small bars, it’s storing energy. An inside day is the simplest version: today’s high is below yesterday’s high and today’s low is above yesterday’s low, so the whole bar fits inside the prior one (the “mother bar”). Tight closes are the same idea over several sessions: the closes bunch up within a percent or two. Neither tells you the direction. They tell you where the move should start: a close above the mother bar’s high, or below its low. That’s why this lesson starts on the weekly chart. The coil tells you where to look, and the weekly trend tells you which way to lean. (This also covers the multi-timeframe lesson I’d planned for yesterday’
Implies: Weekly first, daily second. If the weekly trend is up, an inside day or a run of tight closes near the 21 EMA is a place to set an alert just above the mother-bar high, act only on a close through it on above-average volume, and keep the stop under the mother-bar low. If the weekly is falling, skip the long setups no matter how neat the daily coil looks. · lesson page

L16 · EMA vs SMA (21 EMA vs 21 SMA turn lag; 200 EMA vs 200 SMA slope disagreement)

Both lines average the last N closes. A simple moving average (SMA) gives every one of those days the same weight. An exponential moving average (EMA) gives the most recent days more weight, so it turns sooner when price changes direction. That’s the whole trade-off: the EMA is faster but gets faked out more; the SMA is slower but steadier. What CRM showed this fall At the top: CRM peaked near $264 in early September. The 21 EMA rolled over on Sep 17 at $238.47. The 21 SMA kept climbing for six more sessions, to $248.30 on Sep 25, even though price was already sliding. If you’d been watching only the SMA, it would have told you the trend was still up while the stock was dropping. At the bott
Implies: Use the EMA to decide when , and the SMA to decide whether . An entry or exit signal comes from the faster EMA. Whether you should be leaning long at all comes from the slower SMAs. And always read the slope, not just whether price is above or below the line. · lesson page

L17 · Weekend drill: spot the MA (name 9/21 EMA, 50/200 SMA; read the stack)

Weekend drill: spot the MA (name 9/21 EMA, 50/200 SMA; read the stack) · lesson page

L18 · Review of L12–17 on one chart + 5-question quiz (weekly first, trendline, range, EMA vs SMA turn, inside day, MA stack)

Review of L12–17 on one chart + 5-question quiz (weekly first, trendline, range, EMA vs SMA turn, inside day, MA stack) · lesson page

L19 · 9 EMA = momentum lane (lane open/closed, close-only reads, stretch from the 9)

The 9-day exponential moving average is the fastest line on the house chart. When a stock is in a strong run, its daily closes tend to stay on top of the 9 EMA, pulling back to it and bouncing. Think of it as a lane: while the stock closes inside it, momentum is intact. When it starts closing under the 9, the sprint has slowed to a jog, and the slower 21 EMA takes over as the line that matters. The lane is open when three things are true together: the close is above the 9 EMA, the 9 EMA is above the 21 EMA, and the 9 is pointing up. What ISRG showed this fall The lane closing (Aug 20): a big red day closed at $374.48, well under the 9 EMA ($387.72). Over the next 15 sessions, 14 closes staye
Implies: Read the 9 on closes only. Close above it with the 9 rising: the lane is open. Close under it: momentum is pausing, so watch the 21. Price far above it: wait for it to come back toward the line before you buy. · lesson page

Terms

Swing high / swing low

A bar whose high (low) is the highest (lowest) of the 5 bars on each side. The building blocks of trends, zones and trendlines.

HH / HL / LH / LL

Higher high, higher low (uptrend steps); lower high, lower low (downtrend steps). Lesson 1.

21 EMA

21-day exponential moving average (ewm, adjust=False), the house line in the sand. Used here only to describe trend vs range (Lesson 13); the full MA unit starts at Lesson 16.

Close location

(close − low) ÷ (high − low). Near 100% = buyers won the day, near 0% = sellers won. Lesson 2.

Volume x (vs 50-day)

Today's volume divided by the prior 50-session average. 1.5–2x+ marks a meaningful gap or breakout (Lessons 6, 9).

Gap / gap fill

Today's whole range above yesterday's high (or below its low). Filled when price trades back to the prior day's high (low). Lesson 6.

Support / resistance zone

A band where at least two swing lows (highs) clustered within ~1.5%. A zone, not a line. Lesson 7.

Role reversal

A cleared ceiling acting as the next floor (or a broken floor acting as the next ceiling). Lesson 8.

Round number

Prices like $10, $50, $100, $400 (step scaled to price) where stalls cluster. Lesson 9.

Trendline / channel

A line through two real swing lows (highs); a third holding touch confirms it; a parallel line through the opposite extreme makes a channel. Breaks judged on closes. Lesson 12.

Range vs trend

Count 21-EMA crosses over 60 sessions: ≤2 trending, ≥6 with a flat 21 EMA = range. Middle of a range = no-trade zone. Lesson 13.

Confirm / invalidate

Confirm = what the next sessions must do for the lesson to play out; invalidate = the close that says it failed. Educational framing, not a trade instruction.