drsushi,
MP patterns for me come in forms of normal days, neutral days, normal variation days, "P' shaped profiles, "b" shaped profiles, IB range, etc... For example, in the first chart below you will see profile on the ES from 2/13/08. The profile shows that of a neutral day in which range extension exists on both sides of the initial balance.
Although value shifted slightly higher compared to the 12th, the neutral day is telling me that there is conflicting opinion by the sellers and buyers. Once price shifts in one direction, this is going to cause one party to act strongly. On 2/14/08 the markets opened up near the 13 high and failed to take it out shown by the weakness appearing at the rallies. (chart below)
This weakness caused a nice downtrend as those long on 2/13 (neutral day) are now wrong and need to sell. Value shifted higher > lower. See chart below.
So in this example, based of these two patterns you could of positioned yourself on the short side for 2/15. If you had a plan to look for signs of weakness an example short could of been initiated at the gap fill. Please see chart below.
More importantly than the trade example is the concept I am using like MP pattern recognition to develop a trading plan.