When a lower high is not yet a reversal
Why a single lower high after a rally often marks digestion, not a turn — and what to wait for next.
Traders love the first lower high after a long climb. It feels like permission to sell. In classroom reviews we see that lower high more often as a pause: volume softens, the prior swing low still holds, and the next thrust pushes through again.
A useful rule of thumb from our Whitfield sessions: treat the first lower high as a warning to tighten attention, not as a finished reversal. Wait for a break of a meaningful swing low, or a second failed thrust that cannot reclaim the lower high. Until then, the trend still owns the tape.
Bring charts where you sold that first lower high. Mark whether the swing low below it was ever taken out. That simple audit usually reveals how often patience would have paid better than cleverness.