What is Trend?

The market's sustained direction — higher highs and higher lows up, lower lows and lower highs down.

A trend is the sustained directional movement of price. Structurally, an uptrend is a sequence of higher highs and higher lows, a downtrend is lower lows and lower highs, and anything else is a range. The trend is the single most important context on a chart because it tells you which side of the market has control and therefore which trades have the odds behind them: buying pullbacks in an uptrend means trading with the dominant pressure instead of against it.

Two practical disciplines make trend useful rather than theoretical. First, define the trend on a specific timeframe and name it — the daily can be up while the 15-minute is down, and confusing the two is a classic account-killer. Second, let structure tell you when the trend has ended rather than guessing: as long as the sequence of swings holds, the trend is intact, and the first real warning is a change of character. The old advice to trade with the trend survives because counter-trend trading demands precision that most traders, especially new ones, do not yet have.