Reversal cues are not buy or sell signals on their own. In our classroom they function as pause points — reasons to reduce size, tighten invalidation, or wait for structure to confirm what the cue suggests. At swing highs we watch three cues most often.
Cue 1: Liquidity grab above the obvious high
Price pushes through a visible swing high, triggers stops, then closes back below within one to three sessions. On gold H4 this appears as a long upper wick with volume spike; on HOSE dailies the same pattern often prints on expiry-week volatility.
When it matters: When the grab occurs at a level you already labelled as HH in a mature leg. When to wait: When structure on the higher timeframe is mid-trend and the grab is shallow — it may be continuation fuel.
Cue 2: Wick rejection with body failure
The candle tests the high, leaves a pronounced wick, and the body finishes in the lower half of the range. We look for this after a BOS in the opposite direction has not yet printed — it is a warning, not confirmation of reversal.
Students confuse wick rejection with ChoCH. ChoCH requires a break of the last opposing swing; wick rejection alone does not satisfy that.
Cue 3: Momentum divergence (used sparingly)
We allow one oscillator in week five — typically RSI on the same timeframe as your structure map. Divergence means price prints a higher high while RSI prints a lower high. We treat this as a secondary cue only when primary structure shows exhaustion (shortening HH distance, overlapping candles).
Divergence without structure context leads to early shorts. We mark those homework submissions in orange, not red — the read is directionally interesting but premature.
Combining cues on the checklist
Our laminated card asks: (1) location at labelled swing, (2) at least two cues present, (3) higher-timeframe structure not strongly opposing. All three must be yes before we discuss entry tactics in class — and even then, entries are optional homework, not recommendations.
Practice on historical charts first. Screenshot five past swing highs on VN30, mark which cues appeared, and note what happened over the next ten bars without judging profitability — only whether structure shifted.
Learn the full checklist in week five of the Intensive or bring marked charts to a private review.