Labelling swings before you name the pattern
A classroom habit that stops students from forcing head-and-shoulders shapes onto unfinished trends.
Pattern names arrive late in our curriculum on purpose. Students who jump to “left shoulder, head, right shoulder” often invent shoulders that never existed as swings. We ask them to number swing highs and lows first, then ask whether any classical shape still fits.
On the whiteboard we use chalk lines only — no pattern templates. Once the swings are honest, a head-and-shoulders sometimes appears on its own. More often the chart shows a simpler change of character: a broken series of higher lows, nothing more theatrical.
If you practise at home this week, print one daily chart, cover any indicators, and label swings for the last six months. Only then decide whether a reversal pattern is present. That order alone removes a surprising amount of noise from trend reversal identification.