A good way to find an up trend or a downtrend is to look on the 4-hour chart (or at least a larger time frame). Once you have found a trend then trade it.
If a larger time frame is going sideways sometimes you can find some good trends on a smaller time frame. This is just a range bound of the larger time frame but there are many times you can find some good short moves, i.e. 20-30 pips on a 30-minute time frame.
If you don’t find a trade on a 30-minute chart because it is going sideways then the best thing to do is to go do something else! Get away from the market for a while. You can check back when a new 4-hour bar is formed to see if something is developing. When using the 4-hour chart you may have 8, 12, 16 or 20 hours before something starts to develop on the currency pair you are watching. You might look at other currency pairs to see if something is starting to happen with them also.
Some people say it’s better to get good at trading just one currency pair and when you have it mastered to stick with it. I feel you should become good at trading a few indicators then you can trade any currency pair with the same indicators. Learning and mastering indicators will allow you to be better at trading several pairs and not just one or a few. This will give you more options when you are looking for a trade and you will have less waiting time. You still need to develop your patience and wait for the trades to come to you.