Hi table83,
If you want the absolute values to be used in the range and count them above some value in D3
Your formula which didn't work was
=COUNTIF(ABS(BD5:BD29),">"&D8)
Try this instead
=COUNTIF(BD5:BD29,">"&D8) + COUNTIF(BD5:BD29,"<"&-D8)
No CSE formula needed

Hope that is what you were looking for.