Two events in one costume
A leverage flush — crowded positioning forced out through cascading liquidations — produces the same violent candle as a genuine repricing. The distinction matters totally: flushes revert once the forced flow spends itself; reversals keep going because opinion, not margin, moved.
The aftermath checklist
Flush signatures: open interest gapping DOWN with the move (positions destroyed, not opened), funding snapping back toward neutral, the side-split showing one crowd carried out, and price stabilizing near the mapped level that triggered it. Reversal signatures: OI REBUILDING in the new direction, funding flipping sign and staying there, and the old side’s levels failing on retest. The first hour is ambiguous by construction; the first day rarely is.
Why the map times the read
Flushes end where forced sellers meet mechanical buyers — walls, prior flush zones — so the map-versus-tape comparison during the break tells you where classification evidence will print. An unwind that respects the map was an unwind; one that slices through structure without pause has opinion behind it.
Reading it
Refuse to classify during the candle. Read OI, funding, side-split and structure over the following hours, and let the rebuild — or its absence — name the event.