As well as the 4 market phases, the length of a price move in any direction is also of interest. Broadly speaking, there are three different time frames of interest – long, medium and short term.

Long Term – A long term trend is what is happening to a stock over several years. Looking at this stock over the last 5 years, you can see that the long term trend has been very bullish.

Medium Term – A medium term trend lasts from a few weeks to a few months. Above you can see an example of a medium term trend. This price move lasted around 4 months.

Short term – A short term trend occurs in a few days. The red highlighted area in the chart above shows a typical short term price movement.

Within a long term trend there are several medium term trends and within a medium term trend there are several short term trends.

Short term price fluctuations can be profitably traded, however this requires constant attention. Given the time frames involved and the need to make decisions during trading hours, short term trading can only be done while viewing online live price movements. For the personal investor who has work or social commitments during the day, this is impractical.

What is more practical is trading the medium term trends. This requires looking at end of day data, typically in the evening after the market has closed. A medium term trader is not trying to catch the short term fluctuations, but is interested in trading the share once a medium term trend has been confirmed.
IntegraStock Education Modules and Software are focused on Medium Term Trading, where clear and identifiable signals are given to identify support and resistance and stocks moving from Accumulation into Ascent.