Field note · 18 June 2026
Where the close sits
Evening four is almost entirely about one mark: the session close, and which side of the average it chose.
Wicks are persuasive. A daily bar can stab through a moving average, recover, and leave a long tail that looks like rejection or like a break, depending on the mood of the person holding the pencil. The desk does not let the wick cast the vote. The close does.
Three places, no fourth
For each of the last fifteen sessions we mark the close in one of three places relative to the average under study. Above: the close is clearly beyond the line, with daylight between them. Through: the close is sitting on the line, or the bar’s body straddles it so a honest pencil cannot pick a side. Under: the close finished on the near side, even if a wick went exploring.
Trend confirmation needs a run of closes in the “above” column, not a single hero bar, and it needs that run while the average’s slope agrees. A string of “through” marks means the line is a place of argument. People like to settle arguments by taking a side. The sheet is allowed to remain unsettled.
We count the run in sessions, not in points. A huge close far above a falling average is still one close. It changes the average slowly. New students often want to weight it by how dramatic it felt at 15:30. Drama is not a column on the sheet.
A worked fragment
Take a 20-period simple average that has flattened after a decline. Five closes: through, above, above, through, under. A hurried reading remembers the two aboves and calls a turn. The sequence, read in order, says the line was tested, accepted twice, then lost. That is not confirmation. It is a visit.
On evening four Lim makes someone read their columns backward, from the newest close to the oldest, and then forward again. The backward reading stops people from falling in love with the middle of the story. If you only have time for one practice this week, mark fifteen closes this way against a 20-period average and refuse to use any word stronger than the columns support. Moving averages supply the line. The closes supply the decision. Trend confirmation is what you call it only when both have finished speaking.