17 March 2026
A continuation entry checklist after a measured pullback
Five marks to complete on the chart before you treat a post-pullback move as a continuation rather than a bounce.
Continuation work fails when the checklist lives in your head. Write it on the chart. First mark the impulse that defined the trend leg. Second, box the pullback and note its depth and duration. Third, identify the level where pullback selling or buying lost urgency — often a prior micro-high or a session midpoint.
Fourth, wait for a decisive close back through that level in the direction of the original impulse. Fifth, place invalidation beyond the pullback extreme, not beyond an arbitrary round number. If you cannot state that invalidation in one sentence, you are not ready to treat the setup as continuation.
In private coaching we often find traders skip mark three. They enter on the first green candle after a red stretch without confirming that the pullback itself has finished. The candle may be a bounce inside an unfinished retracement.
Print the five marks as a sticky note beside your screen for a month. The goal is not rigidity; it is making the decision sequence visible so you can review it honestly after the trade.