A macd histogram is an excellent indicator of sideways market.... the depiction of the difference of two moving averages....

An excellent idea to spend the time to identify a few candlestick patterns as they are most useful.....

Woodie has prepared the Chop Zone indicator which is available for Metatrader.

Because the market is in chop a lot of the time...... perhaps is best to learn to identify indicators which would show the direction of a breakout.