Trends/Trendlines and channels

Uptrend line

A straight line drawn under a series of rising lows. It marks the floor price has kept respecting while it climbed.

Trendlines and channelsBest on 3M, 6M, 1YAlso called rising trendline, demand line

Illustration of the uptrend line shape. It is a sketch, not real price data.

What it shows

An uptrend line connects two or more swing lows (the bottoms of dips) that each sit higher than the one before. The line slopes upward and stays below price. Each time price drops to the line and turns back up, that is called a touch.

The line only describes where price has found a floor so far. Lines drawn through more touches are considered better established. A line through just two points is a first guess, and the third touch is what confirms it.

How we find it

The same code that draws it on your chart follows these steps, with the same result every time.

Find swing lows: a bar whose low is the lowest of the surrounding bars on both sides.
Take the two most recent swing lows, where the later one is higher, and draw a line through them.
Extend the line to the right and count later swing lows that land within the tolerance of the line.
Keep the line only if price did not close below it between the first and last touch.

Starting values: Swing size 3 bars each side (daily), 2 (weekly); Tolerance 1.0% of price; Minimum touches 3; Minimum length 20 bars. These are proposed and will be tuned on real price data before launch.

How to read it

Each dot is a touch: price fell to the line and turned back up.
The steeper the line, the faster price rose between touches, and the more likely the line is to break.
A line with 3 or more touches is more established than a line through 2 points.

Status labels you may see

Label	What it means
Above the line	The last close is above the line.
Testing the line	The last close is within 2% of the line.
Closed below the line	The last close is under the line. The line no longer holds.

What cancels it

A daily or weekly close below the line. After that it is a broken line, not a live one.

What traders check next

Whether price closed below the line or only touched it briefly during the day.
How many touches the line has.
Whether a flatter or steeper line also fits the same lows.

Limits

Two points always make a line, so a two-touch line proves little.
Small changes in which lows you pick can move the line a lot.
A very steep line rarely lasts.

Try it in forecastviz

Open any ticker and choose Trendlines and channels → Uptrend line in the left menu.
Switch between 3M, 6M, 1Y to see how the picture changes.
Compare with Downtrend line and Ascending channel on the same chart.

Open on a ticker

Questions

Which lows should I connect?

Our code uses swing lows: lows that are the lowest of the bars around them. It starts from the two most recent that rise and counts later ones.

Is this the same as support?

Close. Support usually means a price level. An uptrend line is a support that rises over time.