Halftrend

What is Halftrend?

Halftrend is a trailing trend line known for going flat when the market pauses. Over an 'amplitude' lookback it tracks the lowest low while in an up state, ratcheting the line higher only when that floor rises, and the highest high while in a down state, stepping the line lower as the ceiling falls. The state flips when a moving average of the highs (or lows) crosses through the line's level with price confirming, and most versions wrap the line in a half-width ATR channel and mark each flip with an arrow.

It belongs to the stop-and-reverse family alongside Supertrend and NRTR: one line, two states, flips traded as signals. Its signature is the long horizontal shelf during consolidation, which avoids the drift a moving average shows in chop, though not the whipsaw; tight ranges can still flip it repeatedly, and the flat line always concedes some lag at genuine turns.

How traders use it

• As a regime filter: the line's state gates direction, with longs considered only above a rising line and shorts only below a falling one.
• As flip signals: the arrows at state changes serve as entry or exit triggers, typically filtered by higher-timeframe bias because range-bound flips are frequent and unreliable.
• As a trailing reference: the flat shelf and its ATR channel give a stop location that stays put through pauses instead of creeping toward price.