State of the Market: Who/What/Where/When/How/Why > If/Then
The who/what/where/when/how (and why) ranks higher as a foundation because it defines the state of the world/market you’re actually in: who’s forced, what’s binding, where liquidity and memory sit, when constraints activate (open/close/catalyst windows), and how the tape is traveling (speed and shape).
If you mislabel the state, your “if/then” becomes a beautiful plan for a market that isn’t there.
In other words: 5W1H chooses the correct map.
If/then ranks higher only at the moment of execution—because it’s the policy: “given this state, do this, else don’t.” It turns understanding into action, prevents hesitation, and keeps you from narrating while the opportunity decays.
But it’s downstream: if/then is only as good as the state definition it’s conditional on.
24 Hours of Milestones
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Today mattered because it showed the full chain: memory → catalyst → open → close. Overnight, ES kept tagging 6955–6957 and bouncing, which signaled a real “basis” pocket and structural stabilization — not random noise.
So the hierarchy is: situate the reality (5W1H + why) → then enforce the action rule (if/then).