Reading Market Structure Before You Trust Any Indicator

It's tempting to lean entirely on indicators — RSI, MACD, moving averages — because they distill a messy chart into a single, readable number. But every indicator is a derivative of price, which means it's always a step behind.

Market structure — higher highs and higher lows in an uptrend, the reverse in a downtrend, and the ranges that form in between — is the rawest form of information available on a chart. It doesn't repaint and it doesn't lag.

A practical approach: identify structure first, then use indicators only to time entries within a structural bias you've already established. This ordering keeps you from taking counter-trend signals that look good on an oscillator but fight the broader trend.