RSI Range Rules

What are RSI Range Rules?

RSI range rules formalize the observation that RSI does not use its 0-100 scale symmetrically: it shifts its operating range with the trend regime. In the formulation popularized by Constance Brown, building on Andrew Cardwell's work, bull-market RSI tends to travel roughly 40-90 and finds support in the 40-50 band on pullbacks, while bear-market RSI tends to hold roughly 10-60 with rallies capped in the 50-60 band. The classic 70/30 lines become regime-dependent: in a healthy uptrend, tagging 70 is normal strength and a true oversold print may never arrive.

The rule set has two working parts. First, read the regime from where RSI finds support and resistance, with the 50 midline as the coarse divider (the centerline regime idea, upgraded to zones). Second, watch for range shifts: a bull-range market losing the 40 area, or a bear-range market reclaiming and holding above 60, is early evidence that the trend regime itself is changing.

How traders use it

• As a trend filter: take longs only while RSI keeps respecting the bull range and shorts only in the bear range, which keeps a mean-reversion oscillator from arguing with the trend.
• As a pullback map: in an established uptrend, RSI dipping into 40-50 marks the zone where bull-regime pullbacks tend to stabilize, a place to hunt entries alongside price structure rather than fear a reversal; nothing about the zone is guaranteed.
• As a regime-change alarm: a decisive break of the established range is treated as earlier evidence of trend change than price alone; the surrounding Constance Brown studies build a larger toolkit on this idea.