Conditional formatting with < symbol

Hi All,
I'm using a formula in conditional formatting to highlight cells values compared to a standard i.e. greater than or equal to or less than.
Most values will be straight numbers but others will be entered with a < symbol leading the number. The formatting I'm using is simple red green (red bad green good). The problem is when I enter a value with a < symbol the cell turns red.
All help greatfully accepted. Example attached.
Thank you.

You could modify your CF formula such that:

=--REPLACE(IF(ISNUMBER(A3)," "&A3,A3),1,1,"")>=$A$2
format as red

=--REPLACE(IF(ISNUMBER(A3)," "&A3,A3),1,1,"")<$A$2
format as green

EDIT: the above wouldn't work for <= and >= ... edit:edit - see below...

Just for sake of my sanity...

=--REPLACE(REPT(" ",(MID($A3,2,1)<>"=")+ISNUMBER($A3))&$A3,1,2,"")>=$A$2
format red

=--REPLACE(REPT(" ",(MID($A3,2,1)<>"=")+ISNUMBER($A3))&$A3,1,2,"")<$A$2
format green


should work for >, <, >=, <=, =