Studio note ·
The neckline is a decision, not a decoration
Students often draw a pretty line under a head and shoulders and then ignore it. In the Mtskheta studio we treat that line as the only claim the pattern is making.
A head-and-shoulders sketch without a neckline is a doodle. The pattern’s only operational statement is that price, having made three peaks with a middle one higher, then leaves the area under the line that joined the two troughs. Until that leave happens, you are looking at a possible shape, not a completed one.
In Chart Pattern Foundations we print the same weekly chart twice. On the first copy students connect peaks. On the second they must write the date the neckline was last touched and whether the close that followed stayed beyond it. The room goes quiet on charts where the line is sloping so steeply that almost any wobble 'breaks' it.
Sloped necklines are allowed. They are not an excuse to move the pencil after the fact. If you keep adjusting the line so the story survives, you are no longer reading a pattern. You are protecting a narrative.
Volume on the right shoulder, when it is available on the series you study, is a supporting comment. It is not a substitute for the leave. We would rather a student wait for a dull, honest break than celebrate a busy bar that immediately returns to the shape.