Overlap (Structural)

Structural overlap is distinct from candle-level friction. Friction is what happens between adjacent candles. Structural overlap is what happens between legs — how far a counter-move retraces into the territory covered by the prior directional move. In a healthy expansion, counter-moves are shallow — the pullback retraces a small fraction of the prior leg before the dominant side reasserts. Deep overlap — a counter-move that retraces most of the prior leg — signals that the dominant side's control is being seriously challenged. The level of overlap within a directional move is one of the clearest signals of whether the underlying structure is healthy or deteriorating.