Chart journal · 19 May 2026
A thin chart pack
The pack is thin so the argument stays visible. A thick pack hides the disagreement under friendlier lines.
People ask for a fuller pack. A moving average they already like. Volume. A news cutting. The level their desk uses on Monday. We understand the request. The pack is still three sheets for each example: price, momentum, RSI. The rest can travel in a personal folder. It does not travel in the shared pack, because the shared pack is the thing the whole room must be able to mark in one morning.
Why volume stays out
Volume is a real subject. It is not this term's subject. A Saturday that tries to hold price, momentum, RSI, and volume will finish with four half-readings. We would rather mark two disagreements well than tour four panes. If your question is truly about volume, say so when you write. We will tell you the classroom will not answer it, and we would rather say that before you pay for a seat.
Why the averages stay out
A moving average on the price sheet becomes a second opinion that students obey when the momentum reading is uncomfortable. We have watched it happen. The eye goes to the average because it is smooth, and the rate-of-change peak, which is not smooth, gets ignored. Take the average off and the peak is visible again. You can put the average back at home. In the room it is a distraction from the two readings the term is for.
What the thin pack contains
Labels that would turn the sheet into a quote screen are kept off the teaching copies. You should be able to describe the picture without reading a ticker aloud. If you cannot, the picture was never doing the work you thought it was.
The May pack was twelve examples. That is enough. A thicker folder would have felt thorough and taught less. We still have two of those May sheets on the side table, the ones where the room could not agree, and we would rather keep disagreeing over a thin page than settle the matter by adding another line.
- Price bars, daily or four-hour, with enough history to see the swing and not so much that the swing becomes a speck
- A 10-bar momentum line on a separate sheet, middle line drawn lightly
- A 14-period RSI on a third sheet, fences at 30 and 70
- A blank annotation page with three numbered lines and nothing else printed on it
The classroom is where these drills are supervised. Back to the journal.