Consolidation market levels often fail unpredictably

Strong trend market levels often work well

Common mistake is to get conditioned to one market state, misplaying when conditions roll over

Define a quantifiable way to label market state of your trading scope and levels

Strong trend market levels are established through real (skewed) supply and demand

Consolidation market levels are sometimes the result of liquidity engineering and complex risk adjusting algorithms, and you guess it, it makes them unpredictable

In other words: in trending markets, be aggressive on retests, levels work more often

In consolidating markets, figure out where people are getting trapped and act when they confirm wrong as levels didn’t work the way they thought

In trends, side with the trend

In consolidations, side against the trapped and survive/compound/sideline until the next trend

If you suck at trading consolidating markets, at least try to nail when it trends

Or the other way around of course

If you get stuck getting chopped up in ranges and then are too scared to trust levels when the market rallies, you are likely to get cleaned during both