Bingo. Defining the terms is always the right starting point for attacking any problem, but it's a step that is surprisingly often overlooked. If we can't state what trend is, then how the hell can anyone know how to measure it, or even state whether or not it's worth measuring? Unfortunately, trend is one of those things like obscenity "defined" by a federal judge: "I can't describe it but I know it when I see it." Well, maybe, maybe not, your honor. Unfortunately as traders, we don't have the lawyerly luxury of playing word games with our profession. Either we know what the hell we're doing or we don't, and the price of not knowing or not caring about the difference is our trading accounts. Obviously trend is not easily defined despite what "everybody knows" about it. Even the academics haven't been about to agree on a concise definition, much less a thoroughly consistent way of measuring it. And reading most of the trading articles on measuring trends comes across as, to paraphrase Hannibal Lecter, "the fumblings of a drunken freshman trying to unfasten his date's fancy bra." So, a challenge but not necessarily an insurmountable one. I'm up for it. I hope you are as well. Good trading and a belated Happy New Year to you all.