Quote from dbphoenix:
Actually, as I've said, you need to stop trading entirely while you're studying this. Otherwise, there's no point.
If and when you understand what's going on in front of you, the trades will be obvious. If instead you continue to focus on looking for trades and entries to those trades, you will likely never get it, and whatever time you spent on this will have been wasted.
Slugar, there is a process to learning this.
http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/wyckoff-forum/15896-how-do.html
http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/wyckoff-forum/15535-developing-plan-trading-journal.html
You can follow the plan and have a real chance of figuring this out in months rather than years; or you caan keep doing what everyone else seems to do and spend the next decade wondering why you're not getting it.
For example, you asked "how to know in real time." There is no way of knowing anything. This is a kinda game of chance. The idea is to find trades where the probability of one thing happening is greater than any of the alternatives. This is where S & R come in: You can't worry about all the transactions that are taking place evru moment of the session. If a lower low occurs during a rally, but it is well below any nearby apparent R, then it may be a reversal, but it may just be a bit more of a apullback. Who knows? It is a 50/50 shot. So what do you do? Nothing at all. There is always a trade, but not the trade you want. Stand aside. Now, if it is a reversal, then your next opportunity to look for a trade will be when price declines to an S level. If it is not a reversal, you will know soon enough, because the rally toward R will resume.
If you spend the time to learn how price behaves, then this gets much easier. For example, everyday, before the market opens, I can pretty much tell you what two trades are most likely for me to take - a long & a short, where they each would take place, and probably a price range where I will be getting filled. Today things almost got away from me, but if you read my notes and look at the charts I posted this morning at least 60-90 minutes before the open, you should be able to see what the plan should have been.
If you are trading without a plan, you are just gambling. Perhaps this is all gambling. But you can gamble with an edge or you can gamble blindly. I see a lot of message board traders who seem to be doing a lot of flying blind, rather than circling the field, observing the activity below, and planning where they will land safely in that activity.