The page you take home
A scenario map is a short argument about one chart.
It holds a ladder of price levels, a confluence note, a few paths, and a sentence that says when the page is finished. The Confluence Desk exists to write that page with you.
The order on the sheet
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01
Level ladder
Only horizontal prices with a named reason: a swing, a gap edge, a session level that held. Wick-only lines are erased before anything else is written. Four levels is a full ladder. Twelve is a diary.
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02
Confluence band
If two or three independent reasons land in a zone a thumb could cover on the daily, write the high and low of that overlap. Do not collapse different names for the same swing into fake agreement, and do not invent a midpoint the original prints never traded as a line.
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03
Paths
Hold, break, and — when the chart has been dull — drift. A path may point at the next opposing level already on the ladder. It does not promise a destination. Drift means price stays between the levels long enough that the decision you wrote the map for does not arrive.
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04
Retire condition
One sentence, with a timeframe and a kind of close or return. When it prints, the page is done even if you still care about the market. A later review reads this sentence before any new level is allowed on the paper.
What to bring so the hour can start
One instrument. One timeframe you truly watch, with the higher timeframe only as context — a daily beside its weekly is the usual pair. The print should show the last four swings and leave margin above and below for marks. Send the file the previous afternoon if you want the room to print it.
Leave position size, leverage, and account numbers out of the bag. The map is about the chart. Orders, if you place them, happen elsewhere on another day.
After the week
Bring the original page back for a Scenario Map Review, smudges included. If the ladder itself is tired, book another Confluence Desk rather than stretching a retired sheet. Evening redraws of a quiet week fit Open Chart Hours.