# Acceptance — lesson

Gym heading: Situational awareness. Written before the code (Sep 7 2026). The teach screen shows this text; the answer key implements the rule in it and nothing else. Distances are in M everywhere. Harness, confidence, persistence, and reveal format follow stop-vs-noise; the charts come from point-at-the-bar's generator v2 (the same pre-line regimes), by way of trapped-or-not-trapped.

Choices made where the order was silent:

- **The cross** is the first bar, after the level has two touches, that trades beyond the margin band: a wick through it or a close through it. The order's "wicks only" case needs a cross that isn't a close, so a close can't be the definition. A touch may reach into the band (the touch zone and the margin are both 0.10 M, so one band on the chart serves both); the band's far edge is where a touch ends and a cross begins.
- **Consecutive is literal.** A close on the line (inside the margin, either side) between two closes beyond restarts the count: beyond, on the line, beyond is one close and one close, not two. The reveal says so when it happens.
- **A close back inside within the frozen bars is a rejection even after two closes beyond.** The trap module reads that picture as a trap (the people from those closes are stuck), and the order's rejected takeaway hands them to the trap module. Acceptance needs two consecutive closes beyond and no close back before the freeze; rejection is checked first.
- **The freeze lands 1 to 4 bars after the cross,** drawn without looking at the case. The depth of the first close through, the regime before the level, the hold, and the touch count are drawn the same way for every case too, so no case can be read from anything but the closes. The margin is 0.10 M on both sides of the level, as in the trap module.
- **The undecided case comes in three shapes at equal odds:** one close through as the last bar, with wicks before it; one close through and then closes on the line to the freeze (a quarter of those carry a later close beyond that isn't consecutive); wicks only, no close through at all. The first close through is drawn from the same depths as the other cases', so it looks like the first bar of either. The wicks-only shape swaps "One close" for "No close" in the takeaway.
- **No decoys in the hold.** Point-at-the-bar's decoy is a pierce beyond the margin that closes back inside; after two touches that is this module's cross, so the decoy's job is done by the wicks-only case at the cross itself. The wick-only visits before the second touch stay: they are touches, not crosses, because the level isn't a level yet.
- **Touch and level are point-at-the-bar's:** a bar that reached the zone (0.10 M either side of the line) from the near side and closed on the near side, after price had been at least 0.5 M away since the last touch; two touches make a level (Jim's convention, docs/point-at-the-bar-rule-sources.md). Touches are counted up to the cross.
- **Some closes sit a hair from the margin on purpose:** an accepted second close or a rejected close back just past it, an undecided close on the line just inside it. The reveal shows the numbers either way.
- **Soft clock 10 seconds:** three checks (the circles, the closes since the cross, two in a row or one back), the same as the trap module.
- **M is the median range of the 20 bars before the cross,** not the last 20, so the cross and what followed don't set their own unit.
- **The next 20 bars are drawn with a follow-through rate that is a config constant and is never shown;** the reveal says what price did, in M, and nothing about how often. For an undecided rep it also says what the first close after the freeze did: that's the bar the trade was waiting for.

Persistent header: **"Training your eye for whether the market has voted at a level."**

## Before you call it

- **Level** — A price the market has already reacted to more than once: **two or more touches**. A touch is a bar that reached the zone (0.10 M either side of the line) from the near side and closed on the near side, after price had been at least 0.5 M away since the last touch. The touches are circled on every chart. Count them before you read anything else.
- **The margin** — 0.10 M. A close counts as beyond the level, or back on the original side, only when it sits more than the margin past the line. A close inside the margin, either side, is on the line: it isn't a vote. The band on the chart is the margin.
- **The cross** — The first bar, after the second touch, that trades beyond the band: a wick through, or a close through. The chart is frozen 1 to 4 bars after it. The closes from the cross to the freeze are the whole question.
- **Acceptance** — Price crossing a level means nothing. Price staying on the other side means the crowd agreed to trade there. Acceptance is two consecutive closes beyond the level by more than the margin (0.10 M), with no close back inside.
- **Rejection** — A close through followed by a close back on the original side.
- **Undecided** — Anything else — one close through, wicks either way — is undecided: the market hasn't voted yet.
- **Why it matters at the trade** — Decision: trade with acceptance (the level is now behind you), fade rejection (the level held), and do nothing while undecided. Undecided is the most common state and the one that costs the most money to trade.
- **What it doesn't say** — Accepted is not a forecast, and neither is rejected. They say nothing about how far price goes (Runway), whether the stop survives (Stop vs noise), or who is stuck behind a rejection (Trapped or not trapped, which reads the same picture for the fade).
- **M** — The median high-to-low range of the 20 bars before the cross. Every distance here is in M. The number for the current chart is on the screen.
- **Confidence is a number** — Low means 40%, Medium 65%, High 90% that your call is right. Scored Brier-style: sure and wrong costs 0.81, unsure and wrong costs 0.16, sure and right costs 0.01. Being certain is as expensive as being wrong.

## The read

Three things, in order: the circles (two or more); the closes since the cross, each one beyond the margin, on the line, or back inside; then whether two beyond came in a row with nothing back, or one came back. Then the question: has the market voted?

## The rep

A chart from the point-at-the-bar generator, frozen 1 to 4 bars after price first crossed a level with two or more touches. The level and its margin band are drawn, the touches circled, M stated. The question, in full: **"Price crossed the ceiling (or floor) a few bars ago. Accepted, rejected, or undecided?"** Accepted, Rejected or Undecided, with a confidence.

## The reveal

The banner, the answer, the closes since the cross counted in M from the level, the verdict, and one takeaway line. Then the next 20 bars, with the cross and the deciding bar marked. Templates:

- Accepted: **"Two closes beyond. The level is behind you now; it's {support|resistance} for the other side."**
- Rejected: **"Closed through, closed back. The level held; the people who chased are the trap module's question."**
- Undecided: **"{One close|No close}. Nobody's voted. The trade here is waiting one more bar."**

Every rep ends on one of these three lines. Each is a decision: trade with the break, fade it, or wait. No win percentage is shown anywhere; the next 20 bars are what they are.

## Answer key

`accepted = (touches before the cross >= 2) AND (two consecutive bars closed beyond the level by more than the margin) AND (no bar after the first close through closed back on the original side by more than the margin before the freeze)`. `rejected = (touches before the cross >= 2) AND (a bar closed through the level by more than the margin) AND (a later bar, before the freeze, closed back on the original side by more than the margin)`. `undecided` otherwise: one close through with nothing consecutive to it, or no close through at all. Rejection is checked first, so a close back after two closes beyond is a rejection. The three cases come up a third each (config). No case can be read from the freeze offset, the depth of the first close through, the touch count, the hold, or the regime before the level: those are drawn the same way for all three. Some closes sit within a few hundredths of M of the margin on purpose; the reveal shows the numbers either way.