12 August 2026
Name the bar before you earn a line
The first evening of the workshop has one rule: the pencil stays still until the four prices have been said out loud.
Four prices, in order
Malai asks for the open first, then the high, then the low, then the close. The order matters because people who start with the close tend to narrate the day backwards and miss the wick that actually set the high.
On the printed sheet the bar is large enough to cover with a thumb. If you cannot point to the close without searching, the line you wanted to draw would have been a guess.
Why the room waits
A neighbour checks the four prices. If they disagree, both people look again. The disagreement is usually a wick that was treated as the close.
Only after the neighbour agrees does the pencil move, and even then it only circles the close. The trend line, if it comes at all, waits for a later evening.
What to practise at the kitchen table
Take one old page. Cover the right-hand side with a sheet of paper. Name the leftmost bar. Slide the cover one bar to the right. Stop after ten bars.
If you feel impatient by the fourth bar, that impatience is the habit the workshop is trying to interrupt. Write the four prices in the margin so you can see your own wording the next morning.