11 August 2026 · Field Notes

Labelling degree before drawing lines

Why Elliott wave annotation clinics start with degree names before trendlines — a field note from our Tsim Sha Tsui studio.

Most visitors arrive eager to draw. We ask them to name the degree first.

In our evening clinics, a chart goes up on the smoked board and the first question is always the same: what is the largest completed impulse visible in this window? Until that answer is spoken, we keep the pens capped. Degree mistakes cascade — a misnamed intermediate wave turns every nested correction into noise.

A practical habit we recommend after class: write the degree in the margin before any channel line. Intermediate, minor, minute. If you cannot name it, you are guessing the structure. Guessing is allowed in practice; trading on a guess without an invalidation price is how accounts thin out.

Next clinic, bring a chart where you disagree with yourself. Those are the most useful annotations we mark.