Quote from Lamont_C:
The highest high is the highest high only in retrospect. Drawing a trendline in retrospect in strict adherence to the rules often means -- as in this case -- leaving the trend entirely in order to draw a "legitimate" line.
Drawing the trendline in real time requires several lines in advance of the blue line drawn in the posted chart. The first is drawn below the 10:05 (+/-) low once there is a higher high (10:20). Once a swing point has been established at 10:55 (more or less) and a higher swing point occurs six bars later, another trendline can be drawn to track this more acute angle. When this trendline is broken, there is a change in trend and price bases, testing the last swing low. When price then make a higher high at 12:10, a new trendline can be drawn under the swing low at 11:55 (I may be off a bar on these times). That line is then broken, a lower low is made, and the trend reverses.
The point is that higher highs and lower lows are tracked in real time. Therefore, trendlines are rotated in and out according to whether or not those higher highs/lower lows are made (if they aren't, then there's no trendline). Since a trendline is supposed to track the trend, it has to follow it. Otherwise, it is of little practical value.