A green arrow on a chart tells you nothing on its own. It can show up mid-uptrend—where it makes sense—or in the middle of a structural decline—where it's a trap. The difference isn't in the signal, but in everything around it. That's why, before looking at any entry indicator, we ask ourselves three questions in order.
1. What's the context?
Context is the big picture: what trend the asset is in, on what timeframe, and which levels matter. The same move means opposite things depending on where it happens. Establishing the context is the first thing, always, and it conditions how we interpret everything else. Tools like condense that multi-timeframe context into a single panel so you don't lose sight of it.
2. What does the structure say?
Structure is the sequence of highs and lows that defines whether the market is advancing, turning or resting. Rising highs and lows describe a healthy uptrend; when that sequence breaks, something is changing before any oscillator confirms it. Reading the structure—which is what does—tells us what phase of the cycle we're in: accumulation, expansion or exhaustion.
3. And now, finally, momentum?
Only when context and structure are clear do we look at momentum: the strength of the move. Here the oscillators come in—, stochastics, TRIX—not to give us the entry, but to measure whether the impulse matches what the structure has already told us. Momentum confirms or warns; it never decides on its own.
Signals that react, structure that anticipates
This is the idea running through everything we build: if you understand the structure and the context, you don't need a system to tell you what to do, because you already have a clearer read of what price is most likely to do next. Signals react to what has already happened. Structure puts you one step ahead.