Markets trend less often than most people assume. Recognising a range — and adjusting to it — is one of the more practical skills available.
What a range is
A range is a market moving sideways between a recognisable floor and ceiling. Price rises, meets resistance, falls, meets support, and repeats.
It is the opposite environment to a trend, and approaches that work in one frequently fail in the other.
Identifying one
- Price turns at a similar high more than once.
- Price turns at a similar low more than once.
- A moving average through the middle looks flat rather than sloping. See moving averages explained.
- Candles are smaller than during the preceding move.
Working within a range
The boundaries are the reference points. Price approaching the top of an established range is in a different situation to price breaking out of it, and the whole skill is telling those apart in the moment rather than afterwards.
Ranges are where over-trading happens. Small moves in both directions create the impression that something is always about to happen. Usually nothing is.
When the range breaks
Every range ends eventually. The signal that matters is follow-through: a genuine break keeps going, while a false one returns inside the boundaries quickly. Waiting for confirmation costs you the first part of the move and saves you from a large share of the false ones.
Practise it free
The fastest way to make any of this concrete is to watch it happen. A demo account uses virtual funds, needs no deposit, and behaves exactly like live trading.