Studio note ·
Flags need a pole you can point to
Without a sharp preceding run, a small parallelogram is just a pause. The academy refuses to call every drift a flag.
A flag is a brief counter-drift after an almost vertical run. If you cannot put a finger on the pole — the burst that got price there in a hurry — you do not have a flag. You have a small channel. Small channels are useful to notice. They are a different sentence.
In the journal we ask students to measure the pole in bars, not in hope. A 'pole' that took three weeks on a daily chart is usually a trend, and the rectangle that follows is a rectangle. Names matter because the implied patience differs. Flags are meant to be short. Rectangles may sit.
Pennants get the same treatment: a pole, then a small converging pause. No pole, no pennant. The room in Mtskheta has an old paper taped near the kettle: 'If you named it, show the parent move.'