Reading market structure in trending conditions

Market structure is the simplest, most reliable map a trader has. In a trend, price leaves a trail of higher highs and higher lows (or the mirror image in a downtrend). Your job is not to predict the next candle — it is to read whether that trail is still intact.

Continuation setups appear when a pullback respects the last higher low and price pushes back through the most recent high. The cleanest version of this is a shallow retracement into a prior area of demand, followed by a decisive close that breaks structure in the trend's direction. The shallower and more orderly the pullback, the stronger the underlying momentum usually is.

Reversal warnings show up first as a failure to make a new high, then as a break of the last higher low. One failed push is noise; a failed push followed by a structural break is a signal. Treat the first lower low in an uptrend as a question, not an answer — wait for confirmation before flipping your bias.

The mistake most traders make is treating every wiggle as structure. Zoom out. Mark only the swing points that are obvious from across the room, and ignore the rest. Structure you have to squint to see is structure the market does not respect.

Put it together with a simple rule: trade with the trend until structure breaks, then stand aside until a new one forms. You will miss the exact top and bottom — and you will keep far more of the middle, which is where the money actually is.