THE GOODMANWave Theory

Goodmanisms

Things Charlie said

He taught in sentences short enough to remember at the screen. Each one below is quoted from a book in the Library, with the reason it matters.

Goodmanism

“Sit on your hands, Dad; sit on your hands!”

Charlie, to Archer, watching him reach for a trade that had not formed yet. The Molokai can take eight or nine bars at the very fastest, and usually much longer. Most of trading it is waiting.

The Playbook

Goodmanism

“Nests are best by test!”

A setup forming at the ending point of another setup’s third swing is the strongest thing on the chart — but only once it has passed its own test. Not before.

Charlie’s Secret Notebooks, Book 1

Goodmanism

“Don’t draw big conclusions from little data.”

The companion rule to the one that opens Grasshoppers: avoid drawing any conclusions before you have made at least ten trades.

Goodman for Grasshoppers

Goodmanism

“It has to get past the TP before it can get past the EP!”

Obvious once said, and constantly forgotten. Price cannot exceed a swing’s ending point without first clearing its midpoint, which is why the Tipping Point is where you watch.

The Simple System Setup

Goodmanism

“It’s a Setup because it is set up to work!”

Charlie’s answer to students who wanted to add one more filter. The structure either qualified or it did not.

Charlie’s Secret Notebooks, Book 1

Goodmanism

“To each, his own.”

On indicators, overlays and everything outside the method. Archer trades Goodman alone; some of his students layer candlesticks on top. Charlie did not mind either way.

The Playbook

Goodmanism

“Six formations, six parameters, no propagation.”

The entire 6 & 6 setup in seven words, as Charlie described it.

The Goodman 6 & 6

Goodmanism

“Prices cannot go straight up or straight down! Buyers need sellers and sellers need buyers.”

The premise the whole theory rests on. If a market must find a counterparty at every price, it cannot travel in one line — and the shape it makes instead is the 1-2-3.

The Goodman 6 & 6

Goodmanism

“You cannot catch a 200 piper if you always take the 50 pipers!”

Archer, on why the Over count is not the end of the trade. The one-in-ten runner pays for the other nine, and you cannot be in it if you always exit early.

Over the Over

Goodmanism

“You will learn much more from the losers than the winners!”

Which is why the Ledger is a chapter and not a footnote.

The Simple System Setup

Goodmanism

“Know thy chart.”

Two words, offered as the last word.

Charlie’s Secret Notebooks, Book 3

Goodmanism

“Don’t anthropomorphize about the markets; they don’t give a damn whether you win or lose.”

Said plainly, to newbies, in a chapter about money management.

The Goodman 6 & 6

Three sayings, drawn

Charlie’s rules about temperament are not motivational lines. Each one describes a specific thing a chart does to a trader, and each one has a shape.

Greed

Past the Over, holding on

Over held for more
The count said Over. The bar closed above it and kept climbing, so the half-lot that should have come off stayed on — and gave it all back. The Over is a level, not an opinion about how strong the move feels.

“It has to get past the TP before it can get past the EP!”

Fear

Cut before the swing

your entry sold here the move
Two bars against the entry and the position was closed. The structure had not broken: the correction stopped short of the first swing’s beginning point, which is exactly what a correction is supposed to do.

“Don’t draw big conclusions from little data.”

Patience

Nothing has happened yet

Test Exceed Time Hash
Bars accumulate between the Test and the Exceed and the screen feels busy. Neither level has been touched, so nothing in the formation has changed and there is nothing to act on.

“Sit on your hands, Dad; sit on your hands!”

The market does not know you are in it. What it rewards is clarity, patience, and the ability to see what is actually there.

Where they come from

Every one of these is printed in one of the nine books in the Library. The Goodman 6 & 6 keeps a whole appendix of them. If you want the reasoning behind a saying rather than the saying itself, that is what the books are.

Open the Library

The list

One letter, when there is something to say

Charlie wrote to his students. We do the same: a new plate, a chart worth looking at, a note when a book is finished. No schedule, no sequence, no selling to you every Tuesday. Leave when you like.

We keep the list ourselves. It is never sold, rented or shared.