The elegance of simplicity

About this thread

This is a sequence of realizations and observations
gathered over years of trading.
Nothing here is perfect.
Just things that became clearer over time.
If it can help someone avoid
even a part of the mistakes I made,
then it serves its purpose.
I will post once per week (Saturday).
At least in the beginning, I won’t reply to comments or questions.
This is intentional.
The goal is to keep the thread clean and structured,
so it remains easy to read and follow —
even for those who discover it later.
I want it to be something you can go through from start to finish,
without having to search between replies to find continuity.
Over time, this should become a clear and consistent body of work.
Think for yourself.
Use your own reasoning.
Observe the market,
and draw your own conclusions.
Understanding takes time.
Things fall into place gradually.
There is no spoon-feeding here.
No shortcuts.
Just a structured, weekly source of observations
that you can test and make your own.
Take what is useful.
Discard what isn’t.

Simplicity is often hidden

There is a lot of noise around trading.
Promises of fast money.
Perfect results.
Systems that seem too good to be true.
Some of it works.
Much of it doesn’t.
Over time, I noticed that trading, at its core, is not complex.
Price moves within ranges.
Those ranges exist on different scales:

1. hour
2. day
3. week
4. month

The principle remains the same.
You choose a reference.
And you observe where price is, relative to it.
Is it cheap?
Is it expensive?
Everything else builds on that.
Understanding this takes time.
But once you begin to see it,
things become… simpler.

Simple things are easier to understand.
In trading, we can compare it to something we do every day:
shopping.
We look at a price
and we compare it to what we have seen before.
Is it cheap?
Is it expensive?
The decision is always relative to a reference,
even if we are not aware of it.
The same logic applies to markets.
Price only makes sense
in relation to where it has been.
Let that sit for a while.

There are several reasons why I post on Saturdays.
One of them is this:
I want you to take the time
to look at your charts
and observe this for yourself.
Not to trade it.
Just to see it.

Be patient.

Observation exercise

Before adding anything,
it can be useful to remove.
Strip your chart down.
No indicators.
No templates.
Just price.
Switch to bar charts.
White background, black bars.(like in the attached picture)
Not because they are better,
but because they are less familiar.
They don’t invite the same reactions.
They slow you down.
Mark a few simple reference points.
Round numbers are enough.
Nothing complex.
Then just watch.
How price moves around those levels.
How it approaches them.
How it reacts.
No need to trade it.
Just observe.
Sometimes, clarity comes
not from adding more,
but from removing what is unnecessary.

What to look for

After simplifying your chart,
you may start to notice a few things.
Price doesn’t move randomly.
It moves… around levels.
Sometimes it approaches a level
and reacts immediately.
Other times it passes through,
only to return later.
The same level can act differently.

Why?

Because the market is not one thing.
It is participation.
Different players,
different intentions,
different sizes.

Sometimes there is strong interest at a level.
Sometimes there isn’t.
Sometimes price is defended.
Sometimes it is pushed through.

Look closer.

How does price arrive at the level?
Slow?
Fast?
With momentum?
After hesitation?
You may begin to notice
that the reaction is not only about the level itself,
but about the activity around it.
Spend some time with this.
Go to your charts.
Pick a few levels.
Watch how price behaves around them.

No need to trade it.
Just observe.
The goal is not to find answers immediately.

The goal is to start asking better questions.

Extremes and the middle

If you continue observing,
you may start to notice something else.
Not all areas of a range
are the same.

Price tends to behave differently
at the edges…
and in the middle.

Near the extremes,
reactions are often stronger.
Price stretches,
then either reverses
or accelerates.

In the middle,
things tend to be less decisive.
More movement,
but less clarity.

Look at your charts again.
Mark a simple range, Hourly, Daily; Weekly...
Just the recent high, low and the middle.

Then observe:
How does price behave near the top?
Near the bottom?
And around the middle?
Take your time with this.

There is no need to measure anything yet.
Just notice the difference.
Understanding this
will make the next steps
much clearer.

Have a blessed Weekend.

I hope you had a Happy Eastern.

If you did your homework correctly,
at this point you may have noticed that percentage ranges
work better than fixed round numbers.
That is a big hint about how market mechanics work,
and the first step to what I’ll be showing you next.
Now that you have the tools to observe this,
let’s add another element:
Time.
Start applying your tool
to time-constrained ranges.
Then move to a smaller timeframe
and observe what happens.
It will take time
to recognize the patterns.
Do not expect perfection now.
These are the very first steps.

If you have been applying this to different timeframes,
you may have noticed something interesting.
The same price
can mean completely different things.
A level that looks expensive on a lower timeframe
can be cheap on a higher one.
And the opposite is also true.
This is where things start to connect.
Price is not just moving within one range.
It is moving within multiple ranges
at the same time.
Sometimes they align.
Sometimes they don’t.
When they align,
moves tend to be cleaner.
When they don’t,
things become less clear.
Take your time with this.
Go back to your charts.
Pick a level
and look at it across different timeframes.
Notice how its meaning changes.
There is no need to define it yet.
Just observe.