Trends are powerful waves of price action following the same direction. There are three most common types of trends: uptrend, downtrend, and lack of a trend.
How you should approach trading each trend should be different, including watching for signs of continuation or reversal.
When there’s a distinct lack of a trend and price action trades sideways for an extended period, it also calls for a unique trading strategy to take advantage of this type of price action.
There are dozens of trend measuring technical analysis tools that exist today, however, understanding if an asset is in an uptrend or downtrend typically comes down to its very definition.