Why the first mark is a pencil swing, not an overlay
In the Chart Structure Workshop the third evening is the one people remember, because it is the first time Helen takes the eraser to a page that looked busy and proud. This note is for anyone who wonders why we delay the colourful overlays.
A swing is a decision, not a decoration
A swing high, on the paper we use, is a bar whose high stands above the highs of the bars immediately around it, and which you are willing to defend if someone asks 'why this one and not the neighbour?'. That sentence is longer than a video caption. It is also the whole skill.
Overlays — a moving average, a channel, a ribbon of bands — will draw themselves whether or not you have made that decision. They look like work has been done. Often the work has only been hidden.
What we actually do on Tuesday in week three
Each person receives a three-month daily chart of a UK share with no markings. The instruction is to place no more than eight dots. People who arrive from the internet usually place thirty, then sit back as if density were diligence.
Helen walks behind the chairs and asks one question: if you had to describe this page to someone on the telephone, which turning points would you bother to name? The extras are erased. The page looks emptier and, for the first time, readable.
When an overlay becomes useful later
After the six evenings, some people book a Chart Hour and bring a print that already has a 50-day average on it. That is fine. The test is whether they can still point to the swings with the average covered by a scrap of paper. If they cannot, we go back to the pencil.
Config Mapcore will not sell you a template of indicators. The room in Farnham exists so that a first-time learner can tell the difference between a map they drew and a picture a package drew for them.
If you want the version with an eraser at your elbow, the Chart Structure Workshop is the six-evening series, and the enquiry form is how a chair is reserved.