How to identify a Buy Side Dark Pool Platform Trend.

Contrary to popular opinion. Dark Pools do rarely move price in huge runs up or down. The Giant Buy Side Institutions use ATS Venues called "Dark Pools of Liquidity" to ensure that they can control their price to the penny or half penny spread. You need to learn how to read the a stock chart as easily as reading a book. Buy Side Institutions price on daily charts will usually be very small candles. Some candles will be white, some will be doji's and some will be black. A black candle in a platform is not a sell short signal.
Platforms are a narrow price range that has consistent highs and lows that you can draw a rectangle around. Typically a Platform has a very stable price action but the candles are very small and compact. This is the Buy Zone that Dark Pools create that can last 1 -3 months depending on the reason for the Buy Side Institutions accumulation. IF it is for an ETF development, then the accumulation will be faster a month or less. If the accumulation is due to the expectation that the company is going to have a strong earnings report, then the platform will tend to be 3 months in duration before HFTs gap and run the stock up on earnings news. Platforms are an important sideways trend that you need to be able to easily identify so that you can enter the stock before the earnings release and HFT gap up.
The Platform is a trend that takes some study to be able to see but the time is worth it because often the gaps out of a platform can be huge OR there is a strong momentum run or velocity run that nets high profits with low risk.