A swing procedure with a checklist, layered stops, and an emotion handoff

What the archive recorded

The archive records a swing workflow that left ready-made indicators behind and then specified the bar type, the pre-trade checklist, the stops, and the rule for leaving a live decision alone.

The same pre-entry template served an equity-index future and currency pairs. The working set stayed short so follow-up did not produce missed or mistaken actions unless part of the process was automated.

From ready-made indicators to a price-based bar

Ready-made indicators, used alone or together, were tested for durable long-horizon results and were not found to supply them. Later work replaced raw closes with smoothed inputs and then with a price-based bar, which completes only after price travels a stated distance so clock time does not dictate bar length.

Clock-timed bars mixed long quiet stretches with sudden large moves, which made trendlines hard to place and left a stochastic RSI late or twitchy. Range bars, which complete only after a set price travel, were treated as giving those same tools a smoother structure.

A modified brick chart aligned with execution

Plain brick charts omit wicks and fill gaps with synthetic bricks, so a later fill is not at the price a tester might assume. A modified brick chart that keeps real open and close prices, and optional wicks, was used so those prices stayed aligned with execution when the session notation contains gaps.

Candlestick patterns and several classical price patterns were dropped from the pre-trade checklist as not applicable on that bar type.

The pre-trade checklist

One pre-entry template served the equity-index future and the currency pairs. It used directional bar colors, an outer volatility band and a faster inner band, 50-, 100- and 200-period averages as active support and resistance, and a fast and slow stochastic RSI.

A long was accepted only when the bar closed above the 50-period average of the lows. A news calendar was used to stand aside around high-impact currency events.

The working set was kept to a short list of instruments because a longer list made follow-up harder and raised missed or mistaken actions unless part of the process was automated. Drawn support, resistance and trendlines could be armed as stop or limit signals, and the first compatible signal was allowed to act.

Trend-aligned swings

A larger trend was treated as a run of swings whose pullbacks usually stayed inside half of the prior swing. The next upswing was a trend-aligned swing: a shorter impulse taken only in the direction of the larger trend, entered on a break of the previous swing high.

A trend change was assumed only after a deeper pullback failed to make a new high and then broke the prior swing low. One stochastic RSI supplied overbought and oversold context, with regular divergence treated as reversal evidence and hidden divergence as continuation evidence.

Layered stops after the fill

On a daily swing horizon, stop distance was described as about 10 percent of price, versus about 25 percent for a hold-through approach, and was allowed to vary from 5 to 15 percent with the instrument's volatility.

After a fill, a layered stop was used. A wider emergency stop and a wider target were placed at the broker so they would still execute if the local machine or connection failed. A tighter technical stop and target stayed on the local strategy and were not shown to the market. The venue stop was moved to breakeven once that price was reached, and a manual stop and target could be adjusted at any time.

The emotion handoff

Opening a trade was treated as low-friction when entry rules were explicit or the system was fully automatic. Doubt about holding or exiting was handled by checking nearby support and the remaining loss, then setting stops and targets or acting at once.

After those levels were set, the emotion handoff applied: the operator stopped using the live screen as a fresh decision surface. Open profit was often taken at a nearby resistance with a planned re-entry after a small reaction large enough to cover the round-trip cost.