> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.digitaldon.net/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.digitaldon.net/how-the-analysis-works/zones.md). # Entry & exit zones The score says *whether*. The zones say *where*. Every card carries two plans on different horizons, and they're built from different data on purpose. ## Short-term (roughly a day) Built from **recent swing structure** — the last few days of trading, nothing older. Entry sits around the support that structure identifies; the target sits around the resistance above it. Both are **zones, not lines**. You're not trying to catch the exact tick, you're defining a band where the setup is valid — which is also why a plan quoted to the last decimal would be a false precision. If there's no clean recent structure to work with, volatility bands stand in for it, so the plan degrades rather than disappearing. ## Long-term (weeks) Built from the full higher-timeframe chart. **Entry** is anchored to the better of the structural support and the recent short-term support. If the long-run structure sits *above* the recent dip, the recent low is the better accumulation level — a long-term buyer shouldn't be quoted a worse entry than someone trading the week. **Exit is the resistance ladder.** This is the part that changed from the obvious approach and shouldn't change back. Targets are **actual overhead resistance levels** — prices where the chart has demonstrably reacted — not a fraction of the all-time high. * First resistance above current price → primary target * Next one up → stretch target Why: a fraction of a possibly-stale high is an arbitrary number that price has no particular reason to respect. Structural levels offering comparable upside get reached materially more often. Same upside on paper, meaningfully different odds of getting there. Special cases are handled explicitly rather than falling through: * **Only one level overhead** → target it, with a bounded stretch above. * **Nothing overhead at all** (price discovery) → the plan extends past the all-time high, because that's genuinely where the next resistance is. * **Any structure overhead** → targets stay capped below the prior-high region. While there are levels to clear, don't aim past them. ## The invariants Two plans on one card have to be coherent with each other, or the card is nonsense. So after both are computed: 1. **The long-term entry never sits above the short-term entry.** Enforced in two independent places, because the padding on each plan could otherwise push it over on its own. 2. **The long-term exit never sits below the short-term exit, or below the current price.** If the resistance ladder produces a target under that floor, it gets lifted, and the stretch target with it. Net effect: a long-term holder is never told to pay more and take less than someone trading the same chart for a day. ## When there is no short-term trade Sometimes there just isn't one, and the honest answer is to say so. On a flat few days, support and resistance land almost on top of each other. The padding that makes a zone a zone then **crosses them** — the card would say "buy up to $X, sell below $X", which is not a plan, it's a typo with prices in it. Slightly wider bands are no better: a couple of percent of range doesn't survive slippage and fees. Both cases are the same fact — *there is no short-term trade here* — so they get the same answer: ``` No short-term setup — 1.8% range, not worth the fees. ``` Rather than rendering nothing (which reads as a broken bot) or rendering an untradeable plan (which is worse). **This isn't repaired by widening the zones.** Unlike the long-term case, there's no higher structure to aim at. Any "fix" would be inventing a resistance the data doesn't contain. The long-term plan is usually still valid when this happens, and is still shown. ## Related numbers on the card * **% above chart low / % below chart high** — where price sits in the plotted window. * **Range position** — the same thing as a 0–1 fraction. `0.1` near the low, `0.9` near the high. * **Stretch flag** — set when the long-term stretch target is close to the all-time high. Means the upside quoted requires a genuine re-test of the prior high, not just a bounce. --- # Agent Instructions This documentation is published with GitBook. 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