The session charts, alerts, and scoreboard use a lot of shorthand. Here is what each term actually means, in plain words, plus what you do with it when you see it. If a chip or a note anywhere in the app ever leaves you guessing, it should be on this page.
Candles & structure
| Term | What it means | What you do with it |
|---|---|---|
| C1 / C2 / C3 / C4 | The four-candle sequence the whole model reads on the 1-hour chart. C1 pushes, C2 is the fake-out that traps people, C3 and C4 are the real move after. | Read them in order. The trade lives in C2 and C3. |
| C2 (reversal) | The hour that pokes past a recent high or low to grab stops, then closes back inside. That trap is usually where the turn starts. | This is the candle you fade. Entry comes on the 5-minute inside it. |
| C3 (continuation / engulfing) | The hour after C2 that confirms the turn by closing back through C2's body. If price keeps going your way, this is the proof. | Take it with the bias. Against the bias it has lost money, so we flag those. |
| C4 | The fourth hour, the extension leg. Usually where the move runs out toward its target. | Hold for the target rather than looking for a fresh entry here. |
| T-Spot | The price band where the turn is supposed to happen: the upper or lower half of the prior hour's candle, around its midpoint. | Wait for price to reach it. No reaction here, no trade. |
| POI (point of interest) | A specific spot inside the T-Spot worth watching, like a gap or an order block. | Use it to time the entry instead of buying the whole zone blind. |
| HTF / LTF | Higher timeframe (1-hour or 4-hour) sets direction. Lower timeframe (5-minute) is where you actually enter. | Direction from the HTF, trigger from the LTF. |
| Protected swing | The high or low that, if broken, means you were wrong. Your stop sits just past it. | This is your stop. If it breaks, the idea is dead. |
Entry triggers (the reversal sequence)
| Term | What it means | What you do with it |
|---|---|---|
| CISD (Change in State of Delivery) | The moment price flips from selling to buying, or the reverse, by closing back through the level that started the last move. Your entry confirmation. | Enter here. It should come right after a sweep, not in the middle of a drift. |
| Liquidity sweep | When price runs past a prior high or low to grab the stops sitting there, then reverses. The fuel for the turn. | No sweep, no setup. The sweep is what makes the reversal worth taking. |
| Turtle soup | A failed breakout. Price pokes past a level, traps the breakout crowd, and reverses. The classic stop-run. | One of the cleaner reasons to fade a level. |
| FVG (fair value gap) | A gap left by a fast move: three candles where the middle barely overlaps its neighbors. Price often comes back to fill it. | Watch for price to return to it inside the T-Spot. |
| IFVG (inversion FVG) | A gap that got traded through and then flipped roles. Old support becomes resistance, or the other way around. | Tested as an entry and it lost to the CISD, so we keep the CISD as the trigger. |
| BISI / SIBI | Two kinds of gap. BISI is a buy-side gap left by an up-move, SIBI a sell-side gap left by a down-move. | Tells you which direction the gap leans. |
| Order block (OB) | The last candle before a strong move. Price tends to respect it on the way back. | A spot to lean on for entry or stop placement. |
| Breaker | An order block that failed and got broken, then works from the other side. | Use it the same way once price flips it. |
Bias & filters
| Term | What it means | What you do with it |
|---|---|---|
| Daily bias | The day's expected direction, read off yesterday's close versus the day before. | Lean long or short with it. It mainly filters continuations. |
| Continuation vs reversal (bias) | Continuation: yesterday closed outside the prior range, expect more of the same. Reversal: yesterday swept a level and closed back inside, expect a turn. | Tells you whether to chase or fade. |
| Draw on liquidity (DOL / PDH / PDL) | The magnet price is heading for, usually the prior day's high (PDH) or low (PDL). | Use it as your target or your reason for direction. |
| Asia/London bias | A second direction read for gold and FX. Whichever side of the Asian range London breaks tends to set the day. | Break the Asia high, lean long. Break the low, lean short. It only applies from the New York open on. |
| Counter-bias continuation | A C3 or C4 going against the daily bias. On average it has lost money, so we tag it and keep it off the email. | You can still take it, but size down and know the odds are worse. |
| Phase shift | Three expanding days in a row. The move is late and stretched, so a pullback is likely. | Lower your confidence. Late in a move is a bad place to chase. |
| Killzone | The windows when the big moves usually happen: London open and New York open. | Setups inside them carry a bit more weight. |
| SMT divergence | When two related markets disagree, like gold making a new high while silver doesn't. That split often marks a turn. | A confirmation tell, not a trigger on its own. |
Scoring, outcomes & stats
| Term | What it means | What you do with it |
|---|---|---|
| Takeable | Our label for a setup that has everything it needs to actually trade: a real entry (CISD), a sweep behind it, and a non-zero score. | These are the only ones we measure and the only ones the takeable alert fires on. |
| Setup score | A rough quality number. Higher means more boxes ticked. Zero means it got disqualified. | Treat it as a confidence gauge, not a promise. |
| R | One unit of risk: the distance from your entry to your stop. Everything is measured in R so a gold trade and an FX trade compare fairly. | Think in R, not dollars or pips. |
| 1R / 2R | Whether the trade made at least one times, or two times, your risk before stopping out. | The main scoreboard. 2R is the target we grade against. |
| MFE (max favorable excursion) | The furthest the trade went in your favor, in R, even if you did not catch all of it. | Shows how much was on the table. |
| EV (expectancy) | Average R per trade over a batch. Positive means the setup makes money over time. | The number that says whether an edge is real. |
| SD targets (2σ / 4σ / 5.5σ) | Profit targets based on how far price usually travels, in standard deviations. | The 2σ is your realistic first target. The rest are stretch. |
| no_target / takeable_loss / 1R / 2R | How a takeable alert ended: hit its target, stopped out, or never reached its target. | How we grade each alert after the fact. |
| Re-entry (CISD reclaim) | A second chance: getting back in after price dipped through the CISD and reclaimed it, stop at the dip extreme. | Our best-measured trade. Worth watching for. |
| CISD re-crossed | Price traded back through the CISD after triggering. A sign delivery wavered. | A caution, not always a reason to bail. |
The one rule behind all of it
Everything here serves a single decision: do I take this trade or not. Direction comes from the higher timeframe and the bias. The sweep tells you the level got cleaned out. The CISD tells you delivery flipped, and that is your entry. The protected swing is your out. The rest is bookkeeping that tells you, honestly, whether the setup has actually paid over time.
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