When a momentum shift is not yet a structure break
Fading impulse can warn you early — but the swing is not broken until price closes beyond it.
Traders often treat a slow candle or a shallow pullback as proof that structure has flipped. Momentum can shift while the prior swing high or low still stands. The market may pause, rotate inside the range, then resume.
A useful habit: mark the last confirmed swing first. Then ask whether buying or selling pressure is thinning — overlapping bodies, shorter impulse legs, failed follow-through. That is the momentum shift. Only after a close beyond that swing do you upgrade the event to a market structure break.
In London training sessions we force that sequence on paper before anyone talks about entry. It feels slower. It also cuts the number of names you give to noise.