That is an excellent question -- and you're right to wonder, since there are obviously many people who claim to read charts just right. Some have such influence over an audience that its difficult to say whether they made a correct read or just emotionally drove the price direction. This is why I'd argue that the answer to your question is both. Price behavior dictates where you choose the data points to build a model, but then the model dictates(or estimates, rather) where the pattern leads.

What I find is that by using multiple data points accompanied by harmonic tendencies we can almost intuit a model, assuming no outside forces like, actually -- that over complicates it. Point is that in a pseudo-organic/ naturally behaving market, the more data points you have, the more reliable a "support" or "resistance" line is. This is why you can see we held on to the bottom support line despite dropping through some lesser-confidence levels. I'll work on this in a more detailed/organized post if you'd be interested. I also need to do some updating to my ENJ short term outlook!