Reprinted Articles

To determine what worldwide stock markets will do as far as fluctuations in price, involves first determining which school of thought will be utilized regarding the analysis of companies and the investment prospects they pursue. The most widely used school of thought which has proven reliable over multiple decades is the school of fundamental analysis.

This type of analysis looks at the financial prospects of a company, and then looks at their chances of achieving desirable results compared to its competition. On the other side of the fence, there are some in the school of thought involving technical analysis, a largely unscientific but seemingly successful school of thought as well. So, what exactly is the connection between technical analysis and stocks?

If you can believe it, technical analysis is simply the studying of past market trends to make a determination as to what the future of the stock’s price is going to be. But, that still doesn’t answer the whole question - what is the whole connection between technical analysis and stocks? More importantly, how can people think they can predict the price of a stock from looking at charts and graphs and not the financial health or condition of a company?

The primary reason that technical analysis is used by some market analysts is because it can be used subjectively. The analysts can downgrade a stock and or anticipate higher earnings. One would think that from a statistical standpoint, a regular trading day would only be swayed by the daily activities and independent of anything else that has previously occurred. The truth is that over time market movements occur and trends develop. The movements made and the events that occur are not really isolated at all to one day, but are usually cumulative over a period of time.

The utilization of much data is primarily what technical analysis consists of. The monitoring of trading volume charts, older stock quotes, including much more data helps in the development of graphs and charts to help determine how long a particular move in a company can continue and also the specifics of stock market trading.

Comparing technical analysis and fundamental analysis of the same stock market shows that in the short term technical analysis is a short term predictor. Just as the technical analyst reputation has become, of being a short term predictor. Conversely, fundamental analysis is a long term tool that helps predict long term trends in markets.

Technical analysis is much more difficult to explain to the layperson due to the incessantly large amount of jargon involved, much of it to describe shapes in graphs and trend lines that exist. An elbow, or a shoulder, or a host of other terms can all be used to describe the same trend in a graph (in this case, a level market, followed by a steep drop, and another leveling off) which can confuse and put off the typical investor from investing in a company.

Ultimately, many in the investment community are still asking the question \”What basis can we make the connection between technical analysis and stocks?\” in terms of how that type of analysis can be instituted for everyday use. The reality is, technical analysis is imprecise, open to wild interpretation in some cases, and ultimately serves the purposes of the people that use it. However, given the level of success with the tool, it’s unarguable that technical analysis can be a legitimate market analysis tool.

Last 5 posts by Jesse Profit

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Tags: Investing