Drill Deck 1 — Charts & Candles

This is a deck of reps, not a lesson. Each drill gives you a chart in words — trend, candle, key levels — and asks for your call. Commit out loud before you check the Answer Key at the back: a drill you peek at teaches nothing.

How to Run This Deck

• Go in order first. Later, shuffle.
• Every answer needs three parts: the read, the bias, and the invalidation — the price that proves you wrong.
• Re-run your misses at the end.

Drill 1 — Inside Day at the Top

Situation: NVDA has run for two weeks. Yesterday ranged $124.10–$128.40. Today ranged $124.60–$127.90, closing mid-range. Your call: Name the candle. Where are the decision levels?

Drill 2 — Inside Day After a Big Move

Situation: A small-cap jumps from $40 to $46 in a day (range $40.30–$46.20). Next day it trades $43.80–$45.90, closing at $45.10. Your call: What does it mean? What triggers the next move?

Drill 3 — One Side Only, Up

Situation: Yesterday: high $75, low $72. Today opens at $73, pushes to $76.50, never trades below $72.80. Your call: Name the candle in plain terms. Bias? Invalidation?

Drill 4 — One Side Only, Down

Situation: Yesterday: high $210, low $205. Today: high $209, low $202, closing near $203. Your call: Name the candle. Bias? Invalidation?

Drill 5 — Both Sides Taken

Situation: Yesterday ranged $56–$58. Today trades as high as $59.25 and as low as $55.40, closing at $56.10. Your call: Name the candle. Why is chasing it dangerous?

Drill 6 — The Coil

Situation: A $150 stock prints three daily candles, each inside the one before. Ranges shrink $6 → $4 → $2.50; volume fades. Your call: What is price doing, and how do you prepare?

Drill 7 — Third Test of Support

Situation: Twice in two months a stock fell to $182 and bounced ($9, then $11). Today: low $182.10, close $184. Your call: Give the read. What must a bounce prove first?

Drill 8 — Rejected at Resistance

Situation: A stock capped at $95 four times opens at $93.80, runs to $94.80 with a long upper wick (thin line = rejection), closes $93.10. Your call: What did sellers say? When does a long make sense?

Drill 9 — The Floor Gives Way

Situation: Support at $60 held twice this year. Today the stock closes at $58.70 on the heaviest volume in three months. Your call: What changed today, and what does $60 become?

Drill 10 — The Retest From Below

Situation: Two weeks after breaking down through $60, the stock rallies back to $59.80 — and stalls there all afternoon. Your call: What is it testing? What close cancels the bearish read?

Drill 11 — Textbook Breakout

Situation: A stock has based between $40 and $44 for five weeks. Today it closes at $44.60 on twice its average volume. Your call: Breakout or not? Evidence, new support, stop placement.

Drill 12 — Midday Pop, Ugly Close

Situation: Same $40–$44 base. Today the stock pops to $45.10 by noon, then fades all afternoon and closes at $43.70. Your call: Breakout or fakeout (a false breakout)? What decides it?

Drill 13 — Barely Over the Line

Situation: Resistance: $44. Close: $44.05 — five cents over — on average volume. Your call: Confirmed or not? What do you do next?

Drill 14 — Trendline Snap

Situation: A rising trendline (diagonal line under price connecting higher lows) has caught this stock four times. Line at $52.50 today; close: $51.90, on rising volume. Your call: What happened to the uptrend? What does the line become now?

Drill 15 — The Wick Lied

Situation: Same rising trendline at $52.50. Today the stock dips to $51.80 mid-session — then rallies and closes at $53.40. Your call: Was the trendline broken? Defend it in one line.

Drill 16 — Downtrend Line Breaks

Situation: A falling trendline has capped every rally for three months; today it sits at $38. The stock closes at $38.90. Your call: Downtrend over? What is this break, and what isn't it?

Drill 17 — Gap Up That Held

Situation: A stock closes Friday at $70. Monday it opens at $74, dips only to $73.20, and closes at $75.10. Your call: Grade the gap. What zone matters on a pullback?

Drill 18 — Gap Up That Filled

Situation: Same Friday close ($70) and Monday open ($74) — but the stock slides all day and closes at $70.40, nearly filling the gap. Your call: What did the market do with the news? Bias now?

Drill 19 — Gap Through the Floor

Situation: Support is $85. After a guidance cut, the stock opens at $81 and closes at $80.20. Stops below $85 filled near the open. Your call: What happened to "support," and what is $85 now?

Drill 20 — Exhaustion Gap

Situation: After running $50 → $61 in five straight days, a stock gaps up again: opens $63, stalls, closes $61.50 near its low. Your call: Name this gap. The rule for fresh longs here?

Drill 21 — Staircase Up

Situation: Over six weeks: lows of $88, $91, $94 — and highs of $96, $99, $103. Your call: Describe the structure. What level ends it?

Drill 22 — Staircase Down

Situation: Rally highs of $120, $116, $112. The lows keep holding at $105. Your call: Bias? What price opens the next leg down?

Drill 23 — Top of the Range

Situation: A stock has chopped between $28 and $32 for six weeks, touching each edge three times. Today it trades at $31.80. Your call: What is the correct play — and the classic mistake?

Drill 24 — Middle of Nowhere

Situation: Same $28–$32 range, six weeks old. Today the stock sits at $30.10, dead center. Your call: A trader asks, "Anything to do here?" Answer him.

Drill 25 — Engulfing at Support

Situation: Support at $145. Yesterday: open $148.20, close $145.60. Today: open $145.30, low $144.90, close $149.90 — body covering yesterday's body. Your call: Name the pattern. Give the read, place the stop.

Drill 26 — Shooting Star

Situation: A stock rallies into resistance at $200. Today: open $198, high $203.40, close $197.60, with a long upper wick. Your call: Name the candle. Who defended what?

Drill 27 — The Hammer

Situation: Support sits near $75. Today: open $75.40, sold down to $72.80 midday, then bought back to close at $75.60 — a long lower wick. Your call: Name the candle, give the read, name the invalidation.

Drill 28 — Balance at the Top

Situation: After eight straight up days: open $88.10, close $88.20, range $87.20–$89.30 — a near-perfect doji (open and close almost equal; neither side won). Your call: Is this a sell signal? Answer precisely.

Drill 29 — One Wick Is Not a Reversal

Situation: A stock has fallen from $120 to $92 in three weeks. Today: open $92, low $89.50, close $93.80 — a long lower wick. Your call: Bottom or not? What must happen next?

Drill 30 — Through the 50-Day

Situation: A stock has ridden above its 50-day moving average (average of the last 50 closes) for weeks. Today it closes at $206.30, below the $210 average, on the month's heaviest volume. Your call: What changed? What does $210 become?

Drill 31 — Two Tops

Situation: A stock peaks at $118.20, dips to $110, rallies back to $117.80, and now falls through $110, closing at $109.40. Your call: Name it, say when it confirms, compute the measured target (the distance it projects).

Drill 32 — Two Bottoms

Situation: A stock bottoms at $42.10, bounces to $47, falls back to $41.90, then rallies and closes at $47.30. Your call: Name it. Compute the target. What did the close do?

Drill 33 — Head and Shoulders

Situation: Three peaks: $100, $106, $101. The dips between bottom at $96 — the neckline (support line under the pattern). Today it closes at $95.20. Your call: Name the pattern, and compute the measured target.

Drill 34 — The Flag

Situation: A stock spikes from $60 to $72 in three days. Then four days drifting $72 → $69.50 on shrinking volume, tight and orderly. Your call: Name the pattern, its trigger, and its invalidation.

Drill 35 — The Bounce That Isn't

Situation: A stock drops from $90 to $78 in a week. It then bounces to $81.50 over three days on light volume and stalls under the breakdown area. Your call: Rally, or bear flag (a weak bounce inside a downtrend)? What trigger resumes the drop?

Drill 36 — The Squeeze

Situation: For three weeks a stock's highs descend — $150, $148, $146 — while its lows rise — $138, $140, $142. Volume dries up. Your call: Name the shape. How do you trade it without guessing?

Drill 37 — Third Time Through

Situation: A stock poked above $50 twice — highs of $50.40 and $50.60 — and closed back under both times. On the third attempt it closes at $51.20 on heavy volume. Your call: How is this break different? Where's a long's stop?

Drill 38 — The Retest

Situation: A stock broke out by closing at $44.60 over $44 resistance. Two days later it pulls back to $44.20, holds, and closes green at $45. Your call: Why is this the best entry in the sequence? Risk per share from $45?

Drill 39 — Vertical

Situation: Five straight green days, each bigger than the last, on doubling volume. The final day jumps nearly +9%, from $80 to $87.20. Your call: Name this phase. The rule for fresh longs?

Drill 40 — Dead-Cat Bounce

Situation: A stock crashes from $100 to $64 in two days on bad earnings. Over three sessions it bounces to $71 on light volume and stalls. The old breakdown zone sits at $78–$85 overhead. Your call: Bottom or dead-cat bounce (a weak bounce after a crash)? Verdict, with evidence.

Drill 41 — Inside Week

Situation: On SPY's weekly chart, last week ranged $598–$612. This week's whole range — $601–$609 — fits inside it. Your call: What does it mean, and which two prices frame the next move?

Drill 42 — Outside Week

Situation: Last week ranged $240–$252. This week the stock runs to $258 — then collapses and closes the week at $238, below last week's low. Your call: Name it. What does it do to daily rallies that follow?

Drill 43 — Zone, Not a Line

Situation: Across three months, a stock has bounced from $118.50, then $119.20, then $118.80. It now trades at $119.40, easing toward it again. Your call: Where exactly is "support," and where do stops belong?

Drill 44 — The Magnet at $100

Situation: A stock approaches $100 for the first time. It stalls at $99.60 twice in two weeks, each time slipping back toward $96. Your call: Why is $100 a wall, and what counts as through?

Drill 45 — The Stop Is the Plan

Situation: Long from $52, stop at $50 (set at entry). Price: $50.30. The news "feels fine," and you want to move the stop to $48 for room. Your call: What do you do? Defend it with the math.

Drill 46 — The Chase

Situation: You watched a stock at $30 all morning, never bought. Now it's $33.60 — up 12% in an hour, still running, no pullback. Your call: Buy it or not? What's the disciplined alternative?

Drill 47 — Cheaper Is Not a Reason

Situation: Long from $68. The stock broke $64 support and trades at $61. A voice says: "Add here — it's cheaper, and my average cost improves." Your call: Answer the voice. What did the chart say at $64?

Drill 48 — The Almost Candle

Situation: Trigger: $65. With 20 minutes left, price touches $64.70 and the pattern looks 90% formed — but the candle hasn't closed. Your call: Act now or wait? State the rule on unclosed candles.

Drill 49 — Green Day Envy

Situation: A watchlist stock ran +6% today without you. Now an unfamiliar ticker is "doing the same thing" into the close, and you want in. Your call: Name the emotion, and give the ruling.

Drill 50 — Stopped, Then It Ran

Situation: Your stop at $45 got tagged by a dip to $44.90. The stock then reversed and closed at $47. You want to buy back immediately. Your call: Did the stop fail? What does re-entry require?

Drill 51 — Two Days Erased

Situation: Day 1: open $58.60, close $56.20 (red, at its low). Day 2: open $56, rallies all day, closes at $58.90 — above Day 1's open. Your call: What did Day 2 do to Day 1, and what cancels the read?

Drill 52 — Gap Down, Then Silence

Situation: A stock closes at $40.20, then gaps down: opens $36.90, ranges $35.80–$37.40, closes $36.20. Next day: a quiet $36.00–$37.10 range, inside the gap day's. Your call: Is this a bottom? Name both triggers and what each means.

Drill 53 — First Higher Low

Situation: A stock broke support at $90, slid to $84, bounced, then pulled back — and held at $86.50, above the $84 low. It now pushes up to $89. Your call: Grade the attempt. What price upgrades it to a story change?

Drill 54 — The Lower High

Situation: A stock rallied off its lows from $70 to $84, pulled back to $79, and bounced — but stalled at $82.30, below the $84 high. Your call: What is momentum saying? Which price decides the bounce's fate?

Drill 55 — Capitulation Candle

Situation: After a long downtrend: the biggest red candle and biggest volume day of the whole move. Low $46.80, close $48.20. Your call: Is this the bottom? Give the two-part honest answer.

Drill 56 — Post-News Balance

Situation: After an earnings gap, a stock settles into three quiet days between $102 and $105 on falling volume. Your call: Which two prices matter, and what is the middle for trading?

Drill 57 — The Long Base Breaks

Situation: A stock sat in an $18–$22 base for six months. Today it closes at $22.70 on triple its average volume. Your call: Why does base length matter? What's a long's first line of defense?

Drill 58 — The Trap Springs

Situation: Same $18–$22 base. The stock closes at $22.60 — then the very next day closes at $21.40, right back inside the base. Your call: Name it. The only correct action for breakout longs? The magnet below?

Drill 59 — Two Different Days

Situation: Yesterday SPY stair-stepped up all day and closed at its high. Today, by noon, SPY has crossed its opening price six times inside a 40-cent range ($582.10–$582.50). Your call: What changed, and what does it demand from your playbook?

Drill 60 — The Whole Picture

Situation: The weekly chart shows higher highs and higher lows. The daily chart has pulled back four days to $130 — old resistance already flipped to support. Today prints a small inside day, $129.80–$131.20, right on that level. Your call: Put it together: the setup, the trigger, and the stop.

Answer Key

1. Inside candle: today's range fits inside yesterday's $124.10–$128.40. Trade the outer edges: close above $128.40 = strength; below $124.10 = weakness.

2. A pause, not a reversal. Bias stays up while the big range holds. Trigger: a break of $46.20; below $40.30, cancelled.

3. Directional candle, up: only the prior high ($75) broke. Buyers control while price holds above $75. Invalidation: a trade below $72.

4. Directional candle, down: only the prior low ($205) broke; $210 survived. Sellers control — the close near $203 confirms it. Invalidation: back above $210.

5. Outside candle: both sides of $56–$58 taken out, both camps trapped, and the $56.10 close says neither won.

6. Compression (a coil): shrinking ranges and fading volume store energy. Mark the three-day range's edges; trade the break on a close.

7. Support is alive: a third hold at $182. But a bounce trade needs proof first: a strong up candle. Stop below $182.

8. Sellers defended just under $95; the $94.80 push was rejected into a weak close. No long until a candle closes above $95.

9. Support broke: a $58.70 close on three-month-high volume is a verdict, not a dip. $60 flips to first resistance on any bounce.

10. A retest of broken support from below: the old floor is now a ceiling. Cancels only on a close back above $60.

11. Yes: a close above the $44 top of a five-week base, on double volume. $44 becomes first support. Stop below roughly $43.50.

12. Fakeout. The decider is the close: $43.70 is back inside the $40–$44 base — the noon spike trapped breakout buyers.

13. Not confirmed: five cents over the line on average volume is a coin flip. Wait for follow-through, or a retest holding $44.

14. The uptrend is damaged: a close below a four-times-tested trendline, on rising volume. The line flips to resistance near $52.50 on bounces. Longs de-risk until price reclaims it.

15. No. Breaks are judged on closes, not wicks: the $53.40 close sits back above the $52.50 line.

16. The first crack in the downtrend, not proof it's over. A trend change needs a higher low next, then a higher high.

17. A strong gap: opened up $4, dipped only to $73.20, closed at the highs ($75.10). The zone that matters on a pullback is the gap itself, $70–$74.

18. The market sold the news: a same-day gap fill means sellers exited into the pop. Bias: neutral-to-negative until a close reclaims $74.

19. Support wasn't broken, it was jumped: the gap through $85 is why stops below it filled near $81. $85 is now resistance.

20. A likely exhaustion gap: the last, biggest gap ending a vertical run, going nowhere — opened $63, closed $61.50 near the lows. Fresh longs: none.

21. A textbook uptrend: higher highs ($96 → $99 → $103), higher lows ($88 → $91 → $94). A close below $94, the last low, ends it.

22. Bearish pressure: rallies die lower each time ($120 → $116 → $112). The floor is $105; a close below it opens the next leg down.

23. You're at range resistance: fade the edge (stop above $32) or do nothing. The classic mistake: buying a breakout that hasn't happened.

24. Nothing. $30.10 is the middle — the chart's worst risk-to-reward, no level to lean on. Edge lives at the edges: $28, $32, or a confirmed break.

25. A bullish engulfing candle at support: sellers pushed to $144.90; buyers took back yesterday's body, closing at $149.90. Stop: below $144.90.

26. A shooting star at resistance: buyers spiked through $200 to $203.40; sellers closed it at $197.60, below the open. $200+ belongs to sellers.

27. A hammer: sellers drove price to $72.80; buyers bought it all back by the close. Bullish at support, but an attempt needing follow-through. Invalidation: a close below $72.80.

28. No, not by itself. A doji after eight up days means balance. A warning, not an exit. The turn starts only on a close below $87.20.

29. Not yet: structure is still lower highs and lower lows; the wick only says buyers appeared at $89.50. A bottom needs a higher low, then a close above a prior lower high.

30. Real damage: first close below the 50-day average, on the month's heaviest volume. $210 flips to resistance; longs de-risk until it's reclaimed.

31. A double top — two peaks at one ceiling ($118.20, $117.80). Confirms when the $110 neckline (the dip between peaks) breaks — today's $109.40 close did. Height $118 − $110 = $8. Target: $110 − $8 = $102.

32. A double bottom — two lows at one floor ($42.10, $41.90). The $47.30 close breaks the $47 neckline (the peak between the lows), confirming it. Height $47 − $42 = $5. Target: $47 + $5 = $52. Below $47 cancels.

33. A head and shoulders top: shoulders $100 and $101, head $106. The $95.20 close breaks the $96 neckline. Depth $106 − $96 = $10. Target: $96 − $10 = $86. Above $96 cancels.

34. A bull flag: a sharp pole ($60 → $72), then a tight, low-volume drift — rest, not reversal. Trigger: a close above $72. Invalidation: losing $69.50, the flag's low.

35. A bear flag until proven otherwise: three days, light volume, stalling under the breakdown zone. The drop resumes on a break below $78.

36. A symmetrical triangle: highs and lows squeezing together. Don't guess direction: mark the edges (about $146 above, $142 below); trade the close outside them.

37. What the first two lacked: a close above $50, on heavy volume. The earlier pokes were fakeouts — highs through, closes back under. Stop: back below $50.

38. Everything is confirmed: breakout closed, level flipped, retest held at $44.20. You buy proof instead of hope. Risk from $45 to a stop under $44: roughly $1 per share.

39. A climax (parabolic) phase — a move's final vertical sprint. A +9% finale after five accelerating days is exhaustion at speed, not strength to buy. Rule: no fresh longs atop a vertical run.

40. A dead-cat bounce: it recovers barely a fifth of the $100 → $64 crash, rides light volume, and stalls far below the $78–$85 supply zone.

41. Weekly compression — the bigger timeframe coiling, outranking daily noise. Last week's edges frame the next move: weekly close above $612 = strength, below $598 = weakness.

42. A weekly outside candle closing at its lows — the most bearish weekly print: prior high ($252) and low taken out, close $238. Daily rallies after it are guilty until proven innocent. Cancel: a close above $252.

43. Support is a zone, about $118.50–$119.50 — three bounces at three different prices prove there's no penny-perfect line. Stops belong below the zone, under $118.50 with a small buffer.

44. Round numbers are psychological levels: orders and headlines cluster at $100. Through means a close above $100 that holds on a retest — a wick doesn't count.

45. Nothing — the stop stays. Entry $52, stop $50: an agreed $2 risk. Moving it to $48 doubles the loss to $4, mid-trade, by hope. A stop you move is a stop you don't have.

46. No. Your entry was $30; at $33.60 you'd buy the top of a vertical move, where early buyers take profits. Alternative: alert a pullback to the breakout area, or pass.

47. That voice turns small losses into big ones. The chart ruled at $64: support broke, the idea failed. Adding at $61 doubles a proven-wrong position. "Cheaper" is also a property of falling knives.

48. Wait. A candle isn't evidence until it closes; the last 20 minutes can erase the shape (see Drill 12). Take the confirmed close or tomorrow's follow-through.

49. FOMO — fear of missing out. No trade. An unfamiliar ticker has no plan, levels, stop, or sizing; entering is gambling wearing a ticker symbol.

50. No: the stop worked — it capped the loss as planned, and the $44.90 dip could have kept falling. Re-entry is a new trade: fresh trigger, stop, sizing.

51. A two-day reversal: Day 2 erased Day 1's drop and closed above its open ($58.90 vs $58.60). Cancels on a close under $56.

52. No. The inside day ($36.00–$37.10, inside the gap day's $35.80–$37.40) is a pause, not a reversal. Close below $35.80: drop resumes. Above $37.40: only the first relief step.

53. A genuine attempt: holding $86.50, above the $84 low, is the first higher low. But price sits under $90, broken support turned resistance. A close above $90 upgrades attempt to story change.

54. Momentum is fading: the bounce made a lower high ($82.30 vs $84). The decider is $79, the pullback low: hold it, the bounce survives; lose it, it likely fails toward the $70-area lows.

55. (1) Bottom conditions are present: maximum volume, maximum fear, close off the lows ($48.20 vs $46.80). (2) But capitulation is a condition, not a trigger: bottoms confirm only when a higher low holds.

56. Only the edges matter: $105 above, $102 below. The next move starts with a close outside that $3 range. The middle, about $103.50, is no-man's land.

57. Base length is stored energy: six months of positions built inside $18–$22; a $22.70 close on triple volume says demand overwhelmed them all. A long's first defense: $22 must hold as support.

58. A bull trap: the breakout failed, confirmed by the $21.40 close back inside. Breakout longs exit — the reason no longer exists. Magnet below: the base bottom, $18.

59. The day type changed. Yesterday: a trend day — one-directional, closing at the high; holding works. Today: a chop day — six crosses of the open in 40 cents; chasing gets punished.

60. The complete stack: weekly uptrend, daily pullback into $130 (flipped support), inside day on the level. Trigger: break above $131.20. Stop: under $129.50 — if $130 fails on a close, the read is wrong.