Downtrend

Describes the price movement of a financial asset when the overall direction is downward. A formal downtrend occurs when each successive peak and trough is lower than the ones found earlier in the trend.



Notice how each successive peak and trough is lower than the previous one. For example, the low at Point 3 is lower than the low at Point 1. The downtrend will be deemed broken once the price closes above the high at Point 4.

Downtrend is the opposite of uptrend

Many traders seek to avoid downtrends because they can drastically affect the value of any investment. A downtrend can last for minutes, days, weeks, months or even years so identifying a downtrend early is very important. once a downtrend has been established (series of lower peaks) a trader should be very cautious about entering into any new long positions.