Condition, trigger and invalidation

A written plan separates the situation you are studying from the event you are waiting for. The condition describes context. The trigger describes an observable event. The invalidation explains what would make the idea no longer match its original reasoning. A filter identifies a situation you will exclude from the exercise.

Use descriptions another reader could check. ‘Strong chart’ is difficult to evaluate because its meaning can change after the outcome. ‘Price closes above the marked level on the selected interval’ is more specific, although specificity alone does not make it a useful or profitable rule. This course does not validate a setup simply by giving it a neat label.

Add a timestamp or version number before studying an outcome. If you change your rule afterward, preserve the old version and explain why. Otherwise the record can quietly become a story that fits whatever happened. You can learn from a revised hypothesis without pretending the revision existed before the example. A skipped example is also useful data when it clearly failed a condition or filter.