Every pullback poses the same question: continuation (a pause before the trend resumes) or reversal (the trend is over)? Get it right and you buy the dip; get it wrong and you catch a falling knife. Three things help you read it.

1. Structure

In an uptrend, higher highs and higher lows mean the trend is intact — a pullback that holds above the prior low is likely continuation. The first lower low is the structural warning that a reversal may be underway. Structure is the primary tell (intraday trend following).

2. Where it happens

A pullback that holds at a logical level — a rising moving average, VWAP, a prior breakout level — favors continuation (the pullback entry). A move that slices through those levels and keeps going favors reversal. The level that holds (or doesn't) is the tell.

Continuation holds the line and bounces. Reversal breaks it and keeps going. The line tells you which — if you wait for the close, not the wick.

3. Volume and confirmation

A reversal usually needs conviction — expanding volume on the counter-move. A low-volume drift against the trend is more often a pause. And never front-run the turn: wait for confirmation (a close through the level, a lower low) rather than guessing the exact top (breakout vs fakeout). Dealer gamma tilts the odds — negative-gamma regimes favor continuation and extension (positive vs negative gamma). See why chasing the turn loses.