This Element is an excerpt from Technical Analysis: The Complete Resource for Financial Market Technicians, Second Edition (9780137059447) by Charles D. Kirkpatrick III, CMT, and Julie Dahlquist, Ph.D., CMT. Available in print and digital formats.

How technical analysts understand trends and translate those insights into market profits.

Technical analysis is based on one major assumption: trend. Markets trend. Traders and investors hope to buy a security at the beginning of an uptrend at a low price, ride the trend, and sell the security when the trend ends at a high price. Although this strategy sounds very simple, implementing it is exceedingly complex. For example....