Trading range
A range is a phase where price moves sideways between support and resistance, with no clear trend. It is also called consolidation.
Markets spend much of their time in ranges. Price bounces between a lower and an upper boundary, and trend tools such as moving average crossovers produce lots of false signals.
Two approaches: buy low and sell high with stops beyond the boundaries, or wait for the breakout. Oscillators such as the RSI or the stochastic are more useful here than in a trend.
A narrow range that keeps tightening, with compressed Bollinger Bands, often comes before a burst of volatility. The Asian session regularly forms a range on EUR/USD that breaks at the London open.