Field notes

Short pieces from the desk on the same subjects the sittings use: levels marked early, wicks at those levels, volume beside them, and a notebook that stays small.

A cream sheet of abstract prior-day price marks on a dark wood desk

Mark the prior day before the open

The studio asks sitters to finish the prior-day marks before they watch a single candle of the new session. The open is a poor time to decide where yesterday ended.

Close view of a hand-drawn candlestick with a long wick in copper ink

What a wick is doing in the first ninety minutes

A wick is the thin reach beyond a candle's body. At this desk it matters when it meets a level that was already on the sheet, and when you can say where the candle closed.

Still life of printed bar shapes on burgundy cloth beside a brass weight

When the bar at a level is quiet

Volume on an intraday chart is the amount of trading in that bar, drawn beside price. At the desk we treat it as a record of who showed up, read next to the bars on either side.

An open notebook with faint pencil marks beside a folded chart sheet

A notebook that survives a wild week

A volatile week tempts a second notebook, a list of headlines, and a photograph of someone else's chart. The clinic layout survives because it does not expand.