How to Calculate and Read a Simple Moving Average
Learn how to calculate a simple moving average and interpret its slope using hypothetical prices. See how outgoing prices, bar intervals, and adjusted-price settings affect the result.
Read article →Loading display settings…
Original, source-based guides to technical indicators for investors.
20 articles · Original research guides with primary sources and worked examples
Learn how to calculate a simple moving average and interpret its slope using hypothetical prices. See how outgoing prices, bar intervals, and adjusted-price settings affect the result.
Read article →Understand exponential moving average weights and recursive calculations, and compare EMA with SMA. Check differences caused by initialization, historical data length, and intraday changes.
Read article →Learn how to interpret a short-term moving average crossing upward as trend confirmation. Examine average slopes, distance from price, and intraday versus confirmed signals.
Read article →Use a bearish moving average crossover to review risk. Distinguish the lag after a sharp price drop, repeated crossovers in sideways markets, and differences in execution prices.
Read article →Understand how RSI compares gains and losses and defines overbought and oversold zones. Examples explain why extreme readings can persist in strong trends and how averaging methods differ.
Read article →Distinguish the three MACD components, zero-line crossovers, and signal-line crossovers. Learn why price can rise while the histogram shrinks and why raw MACD values are hard to compare across stocks.
Read article →Learn how Bollinger BandWidth is calculated and how to interpret a squeeze. Understand why low volatility does not identify direction and how to compare historical ranges and display units.
Read article →Calculate ATR true range using the high, low, and previous close. Understand direction versus volatility, comparisons relative to price, and the limits of using ATR for loss management.
Read article →Calculate volume-weighted average price using hypothetical trades. Learn about session resets, bar-price approximations, and why VWAP differs from investors’ actual average purchase prices.
Read article →Learn to read anchored VWAP from an earnings release or another predefined event. Calculation examples explore hindsight bias in anchor selection and automatic versus manual anchors.
Read article →Calculate how OBV accumulates volume according to closing-price direction. Explore how it differs from actual net buying, the impact of one high-volume day, and why changes matter more than absolute levels.
Read article →Calculate stochastic %K and %D from the recent high-low range. Understand how the oscillator differs from RSI, how fast and slow versions are smoothed, and the limits of overbought readings.
Read article →Read ADX trend strength separately from the directional information in +DI and −DI. Examples explain thresholds, high ADX during sharp declines, and falling ADX versus a price reversal.
Read article →Calculate relative strength by comparing a stock with a benchmark. Distinguish absolute returns, relative performance, and RSI, and align currency and dividend conventions.
Read article →Calculate the disparity index as the ratio of price to its moving average. Distinguish 100-based and zero-based displays, and see how sideways prices alone can narrow the gap.
Read article →Learn to calculate a volume moving average and compare it with current volume. Explore inclusion of the current day, intraday timing differences, and how one high-volume day raises the baseline.
Read article →Learn to read divergence by matching price highs and lows with indicator highs and lows. Understand pivot-confirmation delays, retrospective markers, and why divergence does not confirm a reversal.
Read article →Identify overlapping inputs in moving averages, MACD, and RSI. Distinguish composite buy ratings from independent evidence and assess information value by removing indicators one at a time.
Read article →Distinguish smoothing delays from waiting for a bar to close. Explore frequent changes in fast signals, misleading historical charts, and how to identify the actual decision time.
Read article →Understand overfitting when indicator periods and trading thresholds are tuned to past performance. Review chronological validation, stability across nearby settings, and cost and execution assumptions.
Read article →