When you open a chart, identify the trend first
• Before any indicator, one question comes first: is price going up or down right now?
• The criterion is simple: if price keeps making new highs, it is up; if it keeps making new lows, it is down
• If it makes neither new highs nor new lows, it is not a trend but a convergence or sideways stretch
It must be identified 'on that timeframe'
• A new high or low is defined within the timeframe being viewed — a new low on the 4-hour chart and a new high on the weekly chart can occur at the same time
• So each timeframe needs its own trend identification, and the identification of the big picture (the higher timeframe) sets the direction
Connection to our data
• MarketSurfer's per-timeframe trend verdicts automate this principle — that is why the trend of each timeframe is judged separately on confirmed closes
Where people slip
• They call it an uptrend because price rose for a few days — a bounce that fails to exceed the previous high is only a pullback inside a downtrend
Identifying a trend is a matter of structure, not feeling: check two things on that timeframe, whether it is making new highs and whether it is making new lows.
Has the stock you are looking at broken above its previous high, or below its previous low? Can you answer on that timeframe?