What are Primary Trends in terms of the "Dow Theory" related to Technical Analysis ?

Short note on Primary Trends Technical analysis is an analysis for forecasting the direction of security prices through the study of past market data primarily price and volume. Dow Jones is one of the earliest theories of technical analysis. The primary trend lasts from one to three years. Over this period, the markets exhibit definite upward or downward movement which is punctuated by shorter spans of trend reversal in the opposite directions. The trend reversal is called the secondary trend. Primary trend is indicative of the overall pattern of movement. In Dow theory, the primary trend is the major trend of the market, which makes it the most important one to determine. This is because the overriding trend is the one that affects the movements in stock prices. The primary trend will also impact the secondary and minor trends within the market. Bullish Phase vs Bearish Phase Bullish Phase Bearish Phase In a bullish phase, after each peak, there is a fall but the subsequent rise is higher than the previous one. In a bearish phase, the overall trend is that of decline in share values. After each fall, there is slight rise but the subsequent fall is even sharper.