Can anyone recommend an indicator and/or strategy to determine if the market is trending or range bound? I use various MA's to determine the DIRECTION of the trend, but have yet to encounter an indicator that will keep me out of the market when it's consolidating in a range.
GREAT QUESTION - CAN'T WAIT TO SEE THE REPLIES. I ONLY SEEM TO KNOW "AFTER" - BUT I FIND I STAY WITH THE TREND - 5 MIN/20 BAR MA UNTIL IT IS BROKEN BY AT LEAST 1 POINT, AND 2 BARS CLOSING BELOW THE MA.
Don't know you time frame but the guy who used to sit next to me in Colorado swore by the ADX. He was a swing trader though...don't know if he ever used it intraday, his average hold was 2-5 days. I don't have much experience using it but the definition of it seems to fit what you are looking for. http://www.investopedia.com/articles/technical/02/041002.asp
I am completely serious when I say look for price that is sloping up or down on whatever time frame your talking about, making higher highs and higher lows or lower highs and lower lows for a down trend. What other way is there? No indicator is going to work better than your eyes.
look up the $tick and $trin for the market. A good indicator to show when the market is overbought or oversold.