“The trend is your friend” is the oldest advice in trading, and the least useful until you can say exactly what a trend is, how strong it is, on which timeframe, and when it has ended. This course gives you objective answers to all four questions. Each method comes with a rule you can apply the same way every time, a worked example in numbers, and its weaknesses, so you know when to trust it.

Every class works the same way:

Read the class and redo each worked example. Then open a chart of a market you trade and apply the method to it.
Tick I’ve read the class.
Check yourself with the quiz. You need 70% to pass, you can retake it as often as you like, and your best score counts.

The ten classes:

	Class	You will learn to
1	What a Trend Is	Define a trend, a range and a transition, and say why trends exist at all
2	Swing Structure	Mark swing highs and lows by rule and read higher highs and higher lows
3	Trendlines and Channels	Draw lines that mean something, and read a break correctly
4	Moving Averages as a Trend Read	Use slope, price position and crossovers, and live with lag
5	Measuring Trend Strength	Put a number on a trend: efficiency ratio, ADX, regression fit and range
6	Momentum and Divergence	Read RSI ranges and MACD inside a trend, and treat divergence as a warning
7	Trends Across Timeframes	Decide which timeframe’s trend you are trading, and when timeframes agree
8	How Trends Start and End	Recognize the phases of a trend and the evidence that one is over
9	Trading With the Trend	Enter on pullbacks or breakouts, trail the exit, and size for a trend strategy
10	The Trend on the Outer Box Ladder	Read a trend as C climbing the ladder, box by box and timeframe by timeframe

It helps to have finished First Steps and Market Basics first. Classes 4 to 6 overlap with Indicators Through the Outer Box; this course uses those tools only to answer one question: is there a trend? Class 10 uses the ladder from Outer Box Foundations, and explains every level it uses.

This course explains methods of chart analysis. It is not trading advice, and nothing in it tells you to buy or sell anything. Every method here is right some of the time and wrong some of the time; no trend measure removes the risk of loss. Trading carries a high risk of loss.

Units

What a Trend Is

A working definition of a trend, a range and a transition; why a trend always belongs to a timeframe; what the research says about why trends persist; and the four questions every trend read must answer.

Swing Structure

Marking swing highs and lows by a fixed rule, higher highs and higher lows, Dow theory's definition of a trend, the break of structure that ends one, and how to keep swing reads objective.

Trendlines and Channels

Drawing trendlines by rule, what the third touch and the slope tell you, why a broken trendline is a change of pace and not always a reversal, channels and overshoots, and the regression channel as an objective alternative.

Moving Averages as a Trend Read

Simple and exponential averages, the three trend reads an average gives (slope, price position, crossover), combining them into a regime, lag and whipsaw, choosing a length, and how far price has stretched from its average.

Measuring Trend Strength

Putting a number on a trend: Kaufman's efficiency ratio, the slope and fit of a regression line, Wilder's ADX and directional indicators, and range expansion with ATR; then combining them into a simple strength scorecard.

Momentum and Divergence

Rate of change, RSI and MACD as trend reads; why RSI shifts its range in a trend and 'overbought' is not a sell signal there; regular divergence as a warning that a trend is tiring; and hidden divergence as a sign it is continuing.

Trends Across Timeframes

Nested trends, choosing three timeframes about four to six times apart, the roles of the direction, trading and entry timeframes, the four combinations of a larger and a smaller trend, and a worked three-timeframe read.

How Trends Start and End

The phases of a trend in Dow and Wyckoff terms, how a trend is born from a range, the warning signs of exhaustion, the order in which evidence of an ending arrives, and why most trends end in a range rather than a reversal.

Trading With the Trend

Pullback entries and breakout entries, where the stop goes, trailing exits by structure, by average and by ATR, a full worked trade, sizing, adding to winners, and the statistics of a trend strategy: fewer wins, larger winners.

The Trend on the Outer Box Ladder

The book's trend read: C climbing the ladder one rung at a time. Stepping up and down, the C-average, bias, breakouts confirmed at 110% and carried to R2, the chain of boxes across timeframes, the ladder's signs of an ending, and how every method in this course maps onto the ladder.