Field notes
18 February 2026
Building a weekly alignment card you will actually use
A compact card format we use in coaching: bias, structure map, timing window, and a single invalidation line.
Elaborate journals look impressive and die unused. Our coaching default is a single weekly alignment card with four fields: higher-frame bias, intermediate structure map, lower-frame timing window, and invalidation.
Bias stays short — two sentences maximum. Structure map lists the key swing points and the zone where you expect reaction. Timing window names the session or hour range where you will look for agreement. Invalidation is a concrete price or structural break, not a feeling.
We review cards at the start of private sessions. The conversation is rarely about indicators. It is about whether the four fields still describe the same market. If timing keeps changing while bias stays fixed, that is normal. If bias flips every two days without a structural break, the card is being used as a diary of moods.
Print the card or keep it in a fixed digital note. The medium matters less than returning to the same four fields before each trading day. Multi-timeframe alignment is a habit of language as much as a habit of drawing.
Traders who finish an eight-week mentorship cycle usually leave with a personalised card template — same four fields, wording tuned to their instruments and sessions.