When applied to a
stock in a
stock market, a price trend
is the generalized direction of the stock's price.
The generalization is either, trending up, trending down,
or
sideways (sometimes called trending sideways).
Trending up means that, in spite of some fluctuations, the
stock's price is going up.
Similarly, trending down means that the stock's price is
going down.
Trending sideways, or simply "sideways", means that the
price can neither be identified as going up or down.
The determination of what the price trend is of a
particular stock is the objective of many (but not all) technical analysis indicators.
Knowing the price trend of a stock is typically used to
select a particular method of technical analysis and what
trading rules to apply.