A trend is the general direction price follows whether it be up or down. Usually there is an incline when you have an uptrend and a decline whe you have a downtown. Sounds trivial but most times traders don't get it. We usually hear "the trend is your friend", meaning if you trade in the direction of the trend it can make you profitable.
click for Investopedia's definition
Traders should learn how to identify a trend. Traders should know when a trend do not exist and that there is ranging or channeling (price moving sideways). The easiest way to identify trends is to draw trend lines. You need at least 3 price points to draw a trend line (2 to draw the line and the 3rd to confirm the trend line).
I've practiced drawing trend lines with the book "Stikky Stock Charts" by Laurence Holt. A pretty cheap book and good in my opinion. But you can print charts from yahoo finance or stockcharts.com and practice. Most charting software allows you to draw lines right on the chart. Remember you need 3 points.
Draw your trend lines and observe if price follow the trend. You will be amazed.
See Stockchart.com on Trend lines
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Stockcharts.com is a great place to learn about technical analysis.
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