Comprehension Questions
1. What market stages do you know?2. What is the most important factor of a price chart?
3. What factors determine the importance and strength of the trend line?
4. How does the trend line act in bear and bull markets?
5. How can up and down trends be identified?
Trendlines
The cornerstone of technical analysis theory is that prices discount all known information, and forecasts, and that these prices move in trends. Therefore, the most important factor to determine when looking at a price chart is the direction of the prevailing trend. Trends are evident in all degrees, from intra-day trends in 5-minute bar charts to trends of a few weeks on daily charts, to multi-year trends on weekly and monthly charts. Regardless of magnitude, an uptrend is defined as a series of prices with higher highs and higher lows. A downtrend is most simply a series of lower highs and lower lows. sideways trendsalso develop and occur when neither an uptrend nor downtrend is evident. In an uptrend, a trendline can be drawn bv connecting increasingly higher lows. while in a down trend a trendline is usually drawn from increasingly lower highs. The importance and strength of the trendline is determined by the length of time the line exists and the number of times that the trendline halts price movement. Thus. the longer the trendline has existed and the more prices bounce off the trendline, the stronger the trend. In a bull market, the trendline will tend to act as price support, in a bear market the trendline will tend to offer price resistance. Supply pressures
during a bull market will come into play at support levels. pushing prices up off support as supply diminishes. In a bear market supply will increase on upticks, keeping prices under pressure. Demand acts in the reverse order, increasing on price dips in a bull market, decreasing on price upticks in a bear market. Thus. some technicians (particularly those with an economic bent) will refer to a bull trendline as a supply line. Conversely, during a bear market, resistance will be found along the trendline pushing prices lower and lower. This trendline may be viewed as the demand line. indicating where demand will be insufficient to push prices to higher levels. The preferred method of looking at trends is to know the long term trend, multi-year, and then work to daily of intra-day trends.
Channels
Once a trendline is established, technicians attempt to identify a price channel which will contain prices. These are most commonly drawn as parallel lines from a significant high (in a downtrend) or a significant low (in an uptrend). Identifying a change in trend can be a simple matter using technical analysis. Any violation of the current trend confirms a change in trend. For instance, a series of consecutive lower lows and lower highs, following a mn-up in price, could indicate a change in the price trend from up to down. Early identification
of a change in trend may be signalled bv a price breakout
through the trendline and out of the price channel. Trendline and channel drawing is a subiective art, so there are several things to look for to validate the channel penetration.
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