Three removable gates for a long entry after a confirmed lower low

A written long entry

The historical workflow writes a long entry as a buy price condition, a 38.2 percent reclaim, a retracement filter, and volume filters. The buy price condition is a 20-session low, a still-lower low four sessions later, and a current close above that 20-session low.

The 20-session lookback for the first low may be lengthened. The four-session lookback exists so the later low is treated as already established.

Confirmed lower low

A confirmed lower low is a later low printed a fixed number of sessions after an earlier swing low. It is used only once enough bars have passed to treat that later low as established.

In this workflow the later low is the four-session low. If that four-session low is dated zero sessions ago, the signal is ignored. The ignore rule keeps a print that has not yet been established from counting as a buy condition.

Fibonacci reclaim

The 38.2 percent buy level equals the four-session low plus 0.382 times the distance up to the high recorded between the 20-session low and that later low. That intervening high is the high since low: the highest price reached between the earlier swing low and the later lower low.

A Fibonacci reclaim is a close back through a fixed fraction of the range from the later low up to the high recorded between the two lows. One 38.2 percent filter requires the current close above that Fibonacci level and the prior close below it.

Retracement filter

A retracement filter requires the four-session-ago low to sit below the prior close and the current close to exceed the prior close. The filter is a check that price has already bounced off the later low before a buy is allowed.

Editorial reading: the retracement filter belongs with the price sequence. It is not a fourth independent gate in the three-gate construction above. It only asks whether the bounce off the later low is already visible in the closes.

Volume confirmation

Volume filters require more than 50,000 shares traded and current volume above the four-session average while price is rising.

Volume confirmation is a requirement that current volume exceed a short average while price is rising. It is used as a strength gate on the same bar as the price signal.

Companion calculations

Companion calculations include 60-session volatility, volatility-scaled 60-session relative performance, and relative momentum that combines price change with volume versus a 30-session average.

They are recorded as companion calculations, not as part of the buy price condition, the 38.2 percent filter, or the volume filters.

Reading a failed trade

Editorial reading: after a trade, ask which gate failed. Did the confirmed lower-low sequence not hold as written? Did the close fail to reclaim 38.2 percent of the swing? Did volume fail the rising-price check?

Keeping the gates removable turns a repeatable chart condition into a procedure that can be inspected one rule at a time. That reading is editorial and is not an archive claim.