Technical

Understanding the 200 Day Moving Average

Moving averages can help investors to understand the current direction of any particular stock. While short-term moving averages are used to gauge the shorter-term direction, longer-term moving averages can offer investors a more complete picture. Generally speaking, a stock that breaks the 200-day moving average on its way up is seen as being [...]

A Relative Strength Investing Strategy

Relative strength, also known as “price persistence”, is a measure used by many technical analysts to help them understand the direction and momentum of a stock. The term relative strength refers to how a stock is performing relative to something else, typically an index, an industry or another stock. A stock’s relative strength is expressed [...]

Investing and Market Sentiment

Market sentiment is a measure of the general mood of investors as to the expected price direction of the stock market. Market sentiment is, in fact, one of the most significant factors that drive the short-term stock market price movements. Simply stated, rising prices would indicate a bullish market sentiment while decreasing prices demonstrate a [...]

Trading Volume and Technical Analysis

Trading volume is one of the most basic concepts to understand for the technical investor. The trading volume for any particular security is simply the number of shares or contracts traded in that security over a given period of time. In other words, a purchase or sale of that security creates volume. In [...]

How Swing Trading Works

Swing trading is a style of trading in which the trader seeks to capture gains in a stock within a one to several day time period. These traders are not interested in fundamental analysis but instead review price trends and patterns to find stocks with short-term price momentum. This is a completely techncial [...]

Moving Averages in Technical Analysis

Moving averages (MA) are techncial indicators that illustrate the average price of a stock (or other security) over a defined period of time. As the stock’s price changes over that time period, its average price adjusts accordingly. Moving averages are one of the most popular tools available to the technical analyst, offering a way to [...]

Reading a Stock Market Chart

A stock market chart or “stock chart” is at the heart of technical analysis, offering a way to review the price details of a stock. It is essentially a chart that contains a sequence of prices plotted over a period of time. It is one of the easiest ways to gain a visual [...]

A Primer on Technical Analysis

Technical Analysis is the forecasting of future financial price movements based on an examination of past price movements. Also referred to as chart analysis, technical analysis is the study of market action (price changes), primarily through the use of charts.
Technical analysis is not concerned with the business, but focuses strictly on [...]