What is your prefered method of drawing trendlines and channels? (See rationales below)
CANDLESTICK BODIES ONLY
CANDLESTICK WICKS AND TAILS INCLUDED
0voters
CANDLESTICK BODIES ONLY
Only Candlestick bodies represent the “true” price action. The wicks are exaggerations of sentiment and they may be outliers that may also prove to be irrelevant in the general trend and sentiment. The overwhelming majority of price action happens inside the body and thus already provides us a clear picture of strength and direction.
CANDLESTICK WICKS AND TAILS INCLUDED
The Candlestick wicks and tails are also part of the price action. Including the tails and wicks gives us a more comprehensive picture of price action. The “outliers” are not simply exaggerations of sentiment but are valid expressions of attempts to break certain support or resistance levels. It would be folly to exclude wicks and tails as they often signal weakness and inflection points.
It depends on the use of the lines you draw. If it is only to determine trend direction for a given timeframe, it probably is sufficient to use candle bodies only. However if you are going to rely on setting a stop loss based on a trend line, you need to know that if the price action exceeds your line average for any time (microseconds), your stop will be triggered. To get over this problem of where to draw lines, and how to interpret what those lines mean in reality, I find it easier to plot hundreds of short timeframe lines using the maxima and minima of the wicks, then scaling out to a broader timeframe to confirm the overall trend.
Interesting question Imperator! Personally, I also consider the wicks since my trend lines also help me determine the best spots to put my SLs and TP. I want to consider how far or how high price can go so I can avoid being stopped out easily.
Personally,I have never had much success with trendlines of any kind. I find much greater value in watching the candles themselves. The length and direction of the body as well as the extent of the wicks tell a lot about the imbalance of buyers and sellers - more so than a somewhat arbitrary line.
Following Tim Morge I’ve come use median lines exclusively for entries and exits when manual trend trading, rather than arbitrary channels, initially pinning the 3 pivots of the “pitchfork” shape to extrema (highs and lows) of 3 bars only.
This fixes the “channels” without further thought, and it’s up to price (and me) to obey the rules governing median lines rather than to me alone, trying to draw lines based on a guess about what price is up to
Early on, I saw that this was another big debate, so I tried both. What I came up with is that because trendlines are psychological levels and we are psychological traders, I use both. First I use the bodies, then if the traders are not respecting that, I’ll switch to wicks and shadows. Because candlesticks are fractal, wicks and shadows were bodies at some point
Personally, I also consider the wicks since my trend lines also help me determine the best spots to put my SLs and TP. I want to consider how far or how high price can go so I can avoid being stopped out easily. 
