Many are not tradable. Those that are like R10 and pockets - are bankable. =) They are not "predictions". These setups have expected outcome that can be quantified and in fact can be traded mechanically. So, yeah, it is just your mind fooling you. =P
It has many names as it is discovered and rediscovered again and again by different people. When you see a move, say an up move, retracements are expected. If a retracement low does not tag the previous swing high or an important reference price level from a breakout, within a very small range like a point or less, you get a pocket. These pockets are tagged easily later in the day or by next trading day. - copied this from my site
spend twice the time perfecting the pullbacks,never get caught on a downside flush,wont be an upside for awhile
I use r10 as a level from the whole number. 9 to 11 is the range. We made 10.75 retrace. Sometimes it hits to the tick, sometimes the train leaves without you. Since most of my orders especially in AH are entered with oco sometimes I miss the trade if I try to be greedy with tics. Also price is more likely to not stop at a even number in ES. I've never heard of pocket. Also 81 and change was the 50% of the last run and 82 area was 50% of the roughly 72 to 92 run we made.
I understand "pocket" as a gap and/or a liquidity vacuum where price moved fast in the near past and little or no trading took place. Like LC says there is a tendency to fill those vacuums. But not a certainty...
as LC said ,rediscovered many times,pocket ,gap fill,cleavage,its not as strong a magnet as the ledge or nip or s/r trendline and often only partially fills but definitely profitable and a scenario to watch and take advantage of