# Fresh or burned — 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 acceptance.

Choices made where the order was silent:

- **A touch is one visit, not one bar.** The order's touch is a bar whose high-to-low range includes the level. Bars that reach it again before price has closed 0.5 M away from it on the near side are the same touch (Jim's Pine touch-out, docs/point-at-the-bar-rule-sources.md), so a bar that straddles the level for three bars is one touch, and so is a break-and-reclaim: its bars are one visit, and a level broken once carries that visit in its touch count. The circle sits on the first bar of each visit.
- **The margin is 0.10 M on both sides,** as in the trap and acceptance modules. A break is a close more than the margin beyond the level after a close that wasn't; the reclaim is a later close more than the margin back on the original side. A wick through the level, or a close inside the margin, is a touch, not a break. A break with no reclaim before the freeze (price sitting on the far side) is never built; the harness counts them and the target is zero. A level broken and reclaimed twice would be burned too; it is never built.
- **Burned comes in two shapes at equal odds:** four to six touches, never broken; one to three touches with one break-and-reclaim. Tested is two or three touches at equal odds; fresh is exactly one. The break sits on any of the visits, drawn uniformly, with zero to two closes beyond or on the line between the close through and the close back.
- **Nothing but the circles and the break mark carries the case.** The bar count, the window the visits sit in (16 to 40 bars in the drill), the bars since the last touch, the pullback and the approach after it, the approach's length and slope in M per bar, the last close's distance from the level, M, the regime before the first touch and the side are all drawn the same way for every case. The visits are placed inside the window with the last one at its end, so the last circle is the same age in every case; how old the first circle is follows the count, which is the read.
- **The chart never opens on the far side of the level.** Generator v2's from-above approach is left out: a level price came down through and now approaches from below is a flipped level, a different read.
- **Frozen as price approaches:** after the last visit price pulls back at least 1 M and turns; the chart is frozen with the last close 0.25 to 0.8 M short of the level and no bar of the approach reaching it. The test is the next thing that happens.
- **Some closes sit a hair from the margin on purpose:** a break or a reclaim just past it, or a touch that closes through the level by less than the margin. The reveal shows the numbers either way.
- **The next 20 bars are drawn with a hold rate per case that is a config constant and is never shown;** the reveal says where price met the level and what it did, in M: the size of the reaction away from it, or the close through and the run beyond. Nothing about how often.
- **Soft clock 8 seconds:** two checks (the circles, the break mark).
- **M is the median range of the last 20 bars,** as everywhere in the gym.

Persistent header: **"Training your eye for how much fuel a level has left."**

## Before you lean on it

- **A level's fuel** — A level's power comes from the orders resting at it, and every test spends some.
- **Touch** — A bar whose high-to-low range includes the level. Bars that reach it again before price has closed 0.5 M away from it on the near side are the same touch. The touches are circled on every chart; the count is not printed. Count the circles before you read anything else.
- **Break and reclaim** — A close through the level by more than the margin (0.10 M), then a later close back on the original side by more than the margin. A wick through, or a close inside the margin, is a touch, not a break. Any break-and-reclaim is marked on the chart.
- **Fresh** — One prior touch, never broken — the most fuel.
- **Tested** — Two or three touches, never broken — still holds, each reaction smaller.
- **Burned** — Four or more touches, or broken and reclaimed once — fuel used; history, not a wall.
- **Why it matters at the trade** — Decision: fade fresh, respect tested, expect burned to break.
- **What it doesn't say** — Fresh is not a forecast, and burned is not a break order. They say nothing about whether the stop survives the noise (Stop vs noise), how far a reaction runs (Runway), whether the test that's coming gets accepted (Acceptance), or who is stuck if it fails (Trapped or not trapped). They say how much of the level's fuel has been spent.
- **M** — The median high-to-low range of the last 20 bars. 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

Two things, in order: the circles (one; two or three; four or more), then the break mark (there is one, or there isn't). Then the question: how much fuel is left?

## The rep

One level, the touches circled, any prior break-and-reclaim marked, frozen as price approaches the level again. M is stated. The question, in full: **"Price is coming back to the ceiling (or floor). Fresh, tested, or burned?"** Fresh, Tested or Burned, with a confidence.

## The reveal

The banner, the answer, the touch count and the break count, the verdict, and one takeaway line. Then the next 20 bars: where price met the level and the size of the reaction, in M. Templates:

- Fresh: **"One touch, never broken. The reaction here is the biggest it will ever be."**
- Tested: **"{N} touches. It's held, but each visit is weaker. Respect it; don't lean on it."**
- Burned: **"{N} touches / broken once. The fuel's gone. This is where breaks happen."** — "{N} touches." when the count burned it, "{N} touches, broken once." when the break did.

Every rep ends on one of these three lines. Each is a decision: fade it, respect it without leaning on it, or expect it to break. No win percentage is shown anywhere; the next 20 bars are what they are.

## Answer key

`touches` = the number of visits: a bar whose range includes the level starts one, and the next starts only after a close 0.5 M away from the level on the near side. `broken` = a close through the level by more than 0.10 M, after a close that wasn't, followed by a later close back on the original side by more than 0.10 M; counted once per break-and-reclaim.

- **Fresh**: `touches == 1` and not broken.
- **Tested**: `touches` is 2 or 3 and not broken.
- **Burned**: `touches >= 4`, or broken at least once.

The three cases come up a third each (config); burned splits evenly between the count and the break. No case can be read from the bar count, the window, the bars since the last touch, the approach's length or slope, the last close's distance, M, the regime or the side: 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.