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that the stock's price is lower than 10 days ago. Locations where the
graph is above the reference line indicate that the stock price was higher
than its price 10 days prior to those locations. Again, the idea is to find
trends in this chart and use them to trade the stock at key points.
If we were to cover all varieties of technical analysis we would also
cover concepts such as Stochastic (trend forecasting), Williams %R
(overbought or oversold conditions), On Balance Volume or OBV
(trend forecasting based on volume), Relative Strength Indicator or RSI
(momentum indicator), Linear Regression (trend measurement),
Bollinger Bands (trend analysis), Moving Average Convergence
Divergence or MACD (relationships between moving averages), and
many more. But that would go beyond the basic goals of this book.
Many traders also develop their own home-grown technical analyses
based on their observations of particular stocks. If it works for them,
why not? In my opinion however, average investors should perhaps be
less concerned with technical analysis and more with fundamental
analysis. Trends and patterns are all fine, but in the long run, it is the
underlying company that will determine the performance of its stock,
and fundamentals can tell a lot about the company. I am not
discouraging anyone from engaging in technical analysis. It is fun and
educational and it delivers good results now and then. As long as we
keep in mind that there is a real company behind the stock.
Regulation And More
In the world of stock trading, there is lots of money involved. Billions
of dollars change hands on any day while traders buy and sell. It is then
no wonder that there are many stringent regulatory conditions imposed
on the stock market as a whole. For starters, stock markets have their
own regulatory bodies which oversee all the activities in their own
respective markets. And then there are the government regulatory …
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