The Basics - Trend Lines

Trend lines are used in technical analysis to define an uptrend or downtrend. Traditionally, uptrend lines are made by drawing a straight line through a series of ascending higher troughs (lows). ... With downtrends, trend lines are formed by drawing a straight line through a series of descending lower highs.

In an uptrend, the “imaginary line” acts as support and in a downtrend, the line connecting the points at swing highs become the resistance.

Although we can go into what and why – the logic for trend line, is to keep it simple. It’s another subjective area and people like to spot patterns. It’s human nature.

This shows in it's most basic form the concept of a trend line.

In an uptrend we want to see, higher highs as well as higher lows as shown below;

And in a down trend, the opposite is true - Lower highs & lower lows to create the pattern as per main image of this post.

Many other techniques and indicators use this concept, and perhaps the most famous being Elliott waves.

Here's a post on Elliott basics;

This then all points back to Dow Theory - where markets have 3 cycles and 3 waves (another lesson for another time) in short;

Here's also a post covering the Dow basics;

You can also use Moving averages as part of "working out the trend"

And her is another simple guide to MA's (moving Averages)


We thought it would be interesting to post, more of a beginners post that our usual stuff. Hope this helps some of the newer traders.



Disclaimer
This idea does not constitute as financial advice. It is for educational purposes only, our principle trader has over 20 years’ experience in stocks, ETF’s, and Forex. Hence each trade setup might have different hold times, entry or exit conditions, and will vary from the post/idea shared here. You can use the information from this post to make your own trading plan for the instrument discussed. Trading carries a risk; a high percentage of retail traders lose money. Please keep this in mind when entering any trade. Stay safe.