Field note
Label Degree Before You Argue Direction
Most annotation errors start when traders pick a bias before they settle which wave degree the chart actually shows.
In clinic rooms we see the same sequence again and again: a student spots a five-wave rise, decides the market is bullish, and only then asks which degree those five waves belong to. Direction arrives before hierarchy, and the labels start to drift.
Elliott wave annotation is a drafting craft. The first mark should name the degree you are working in—minute, minor, intermediate—before you commit to an impulse number. When degree is settled, alternate counts become honest alternatives rather than wishful overlays.
Try this on your next chart pack: cover the right edge of the chart, choose the degree in writing, then reveal price and place labels. Students who do this in our Sha Tin clinics cut premature 1–2–3 rushes within two sessions.
Bring disputed degree choices to the Annotation Clinic. We spend the first half hour forcing every panel through a degree declaration before anyone argues bullish or bearish.