Oh, I try to work it out for sure if I am interested in a particular stock.....but yes, sometimes you will find it really difficult and will switch sides (back and forth) as the trading unfolds.
Sometimes in David's nightly newsletter, he will switch sides very regularly, when he is analysing the S&P500.......almost nightly sometimes.
And yes, sometimes you won't ever be really sure until price actually breaks out, or breaks down. At least then you still have to opportunity to enter on the test of the breakout, or test of the break down (which are generally higher probability entries, but may require a wider stop than if you took a position within the trading range)
What I was trying to do in that post, was help you to better understand the bigger picture, and how to identify what these larger patterns look like, before you move down to a smaller timeframe to study the price action more closely. I didn't have time to post a chart at the time, it would probably have been more helpful if I did, perhaps i'll try to soon.
