Quote from tradersaavy:
When trading support/resistance, when price hits S/R we then look for signs of a set up based on whatever signals work for us. But, the support yesterday that I mentioned earlier in this thread, for me, came on no apparent support. All of my signals where saying buy however (and I did buy) but one major signal, the support, was missing.
How often does this occur and what do you do ?
If price always retreated to or from and bounced off the last congestion zone, trading would be easy. But sometimes price will find equilibrium at unexpected places. One can attempt to find some indicator that provided "support", or "resistance", whether a Fib level you never heard of or some MA in some timeframe somewhere that for that moment was in the same place at the same time.
But instead of worrying over all this and trying to find reasons, it's sufficient to note that somebody supported price at that level. All you want to know, if short, is whether or not that support will hold. If you want to go long, you'll want to know if there's sufficient demand (which is a different level of support) to drive the price higher. In this case, there certainly seemed to be, but it petered out rather quickly.
Therefore, you can try to catch every twist and turn in the chop, or you can note that price was rejected on the downside and also to the upside and look for clearer indications of trader intent. At this point, however, volume practically disappeared, making any judgements as to trader intent practically moot.
There are multiple strategies and tactics which can be employed here, depending on your timeframe, your risk tolerance, your trade objectives, etc. Maybe you scalp ticks. Maybe you prefer to trade trends. But all of that is beyond the scope of your question.