What Is a Trend

Six months of the pound

A trend is the price going somewhere over weeks or months, with ups and downs along the way. The pound against the dollar was 1.2099 on 13 January 2025 and 1.37881 on 1 July: 1,689 pips higher in twenty-four weeks, a pip being the fourth decimal place, the smallest step most people count in. The line is not straight. It fell 499 pips in five days in April and slipped back six times in all, and each time it went on to a higher place than before. The going-somewhere is the trend; the slips are part of it.

The tide coming in

The picture is the tide coming in. Each wave runs up the beach and slides back, and watching one wave you could not say whether the tide was rising. Watch four and you can, because each reaches higher up the sand than the last. On a chart the waves are the days, some up and some down. The tide is the trend: the direction the water line moves over weeks. A single day says nothing about it. Many days together do.

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