How to draw trend lines: lesson 12

Key takeaways

1. Uptrend lines go under swing lows; downtrend lines go over swing highs.
2. Two points draw a line; the third touch makes it meaningful.
3. Steeper lines break sooner and mean less when they do.
4. A break says the trend changed pace, not that it reversed.

Drawing rules

• Connect clear swing points — lows with a higher candle on each side, not random candles.
• Use either wicks or bodies consistently; many traders use wicks on daily charts.
• Never cut through candle bodies to make a line fit.
• Extend the line to the right: that is where it is used.
• Redraw when a new swing point appears; do not bend the old line.

Steep, normal and shallow lines

Lines steeper than about 60° on a normally scaled chart describe bursts that rarely last; a break of one often just means the trend is slowing to a sustainable pace. Lines around 30–45° that have held three or more touches over weeks carry the most weight. Very flat lines behave more like horizontal support.

Reading a break

A close beyond the line, rather than a wick, is the usual test. After a break, price often comes back to the underside of the old line and fails there — the same retest you saw with support and resistance in lesson 11. A single break without a lower high (in an uptrend) is a warning, not proof of a new downtrend.

How it looks on BRVX

BRVX's TradingView chart has a trend line tool in its drawing tools. Two BRVX-specific points: on stock perpetuals the weekend candles change where swing lows fall, so draw on the BRVX chart itself rather than copying a line from an exchange chart; and use a log scale on long crypto charts, because a line drawn on a linear scale over a 5x move breaks too early.