I went back to 1/8 to do some replay. I didn't realize until afterwards that it was the first day I was 'back' and I simmed it live on the 8th. Interesting perspective just one month later. This observation bit is definitely helping me to see things and start to realize that along with identifying ranges and watching price move in and out, that patience is such a crucial component.
Overnight, price had been in about a 10 point range. A test here and there, but for quite a bit, price hovered in this area. About 2 hours before the open, price definitively exited the range and made a HH than the previous day, but before long, the 50% area of the range was visited again.
Just after the open, price couldn't quite get back to the 50% area and then rose to the HH from 2 hours earlier. My chart shows a few numbers, but those numbers to me were noting waves of price movement. I was keeping track.
During observation, it's been very hard for me to not think about entries, but I haven't. However, I have thought about exits - but more to determine if I was reading price correctly or if I'd have done 'x' here, if there would have been a valid reason for doing so. Also I think of exiting - or reasons NOT to because I know that there's no way to make money in the market if you aren't IN the market. Finding reasons to stay in and not exit at the slightest adverse movement is part of what I'm looking for when watching price.
With this chart, the black dotted line was used as a fanned DL. It was broken right after wave 6. I'm realizing that just he break of a DL doesn't mean that the current movement is over. It's pausing or may be over, but it isn't definitive. I'm sure that sounds really basic and like WTH have you been thinking, but observing price has shown me that. While watching at "A" I saw that price had broken my fanned DL and had gotten to the previous pullback area. Price then tried to go up again, but made a LH at "B." But then "C" happened - the pullback didn't go as low as the last pullback. How about you wait a few minutes and see what happens next? I did and price popped up again == no need to exit.
Later on a very similar thing occurred - after wave 9. The DL had been fanned and was quite a bit further from the current price movement, but it was still crossed. "A" and "B" happened inside the DL, but the movement was still the same (price went to a pullback area twice and a LH occurred). When the DL was crossed, price moved below the previous pullback area. In this instance, I would have exited.