Seasonal windows and the risk of forcing a story
Harvest and inventory calendars matter, yet they should not overwrite what the chart is printing now.
Agricultural clients arrive with deep seasonal knowledge — planting progress, export pace, slaughter schedules. That context is valuable. It becomes harmful when it overrides a clear break of structure on the chart.
In workshops we run a deliberate friction exercise: write the seasonal expectation at the top of the page, then annotate the chart as if you had never heard the story. Only afterward may the two columns meet. When they conflict, the plan must say so explicitly.
A northern Victorian cattle participant in a recent Detention workshop kept a bullish seasonal lean while weekly swings printed lower highs. The honest plan noted the disagreement and deferred size rather than inventing a “late season” rescue narrative.
Seasonality belongs in the preparation folder. The annotated chart remains the authority for invalidation.