A term used in technical analysis that refers to the troughs reached by an indicator or an asset's price. A swing low is created when a low is lower than any other point over a given time period. Successively lower swing lows indicate that the underlying asset is in a downtrend, while higher lows mean it is in an uptrend.



Swing lows are useful for an investor who holds a long position in an asset because swing lows can be used to determine strategic positions for a stop-loss order. One main tenet of the Dow Theory is that a if a major average breaks below a previous low, this movement can be interpreted as the beginning of a downtrend. In the case of an indicator, if it fails to make a new swing low while the price continues to decline, a divergence occurs which could mean that the downtrend is coming to an end.