Fundamental analysis vs. technical analysis

Private and institutional investors use fundamental analysis as their basis for stock purchases, while short-term traders use technical analysis. Since the risk-reward ratio and time horizons used in investing and trading are very different, it makes sense that these two different methods are employed. Investing and trading are very different animals, and their differences are characterized by the investing processes that fundamental and technical analysis illustrate.

Fundamental analysis relies on economic supply and demand information for the long term and company's financial health in the short term. An investor is informed of these conditions by a stocks annual growth rate, five-year, one-year, and quarterly earnings records, and P/E (price-to-earnings) ratios. Investors reliant on fundamentals are more interested ina stock's performance year to year than they are in market behavior. They do not fret when the market plunges one day and surges another, because their goal is the end result of steady, conservative growth.

Although fundamental analysis provides highly valuable information, many people do not have the time required to research the fundamentals. Taking an hour or more to research one company's new product potential and compare present and past earnings is too much for some, but certain fundamental concepts are simply invaluable. One such statistic is the EPS, or earnings-per-share ranking. Earnings-per-share are calculated by dividing a company's total after-tax profits by the company's number of common shares outstanding. You'll want to compare the EPS of the company in question to other comparable companies in the sector to see how your investment stacks up within the industry.

Technical Analysis is the alternate method of stock research, focused on the study of timing, price fluxuation, and investor sentiment. The most common method of technical analysis is conducted with a chart that shows a stock's price history. We know that the prices represented in the chart do not occur randomly, and it is the collective mindset of all investors that creates prices. These buyers and sellers create patterns because they operate from memory. Different types of charts can be configured to show a wide variety of indicators and everyone has their personal favorites. By analyzing charts and price history a trader can attempt to predict market sentiment and stock price movement, but this is far from an objective science.

Technical analysis and fundamental analysis are the two basic sectors of reasoning that constitute the way investors and traders go about choosing stocks, and you must follow your own financial strengths in determining whether daytrading or investing, and technical or fundamental analysis are right for you.

You can learn writing style – what is technical writing?

Technical writing, sometimes called business writing, is writing for a specific purpose and with a specific goal. Usually its goal is to inform/instruct or persuade/argue. Technical writing can really be considered transactional writing because there are two people or groups involved in the communication. One party has a clear goal to inform or persuade the other party. This is real-world writing in every sense. You may not be aware of how much it already impacts your world through textbooks, instructions, web sites, and communications from many businesses and service organizations. There are professional technical communicators but only large organizations have them and even then they are not there to do your daily work for you and that is why it is so helpful for many to take at least an introductory technical writing class.

Why is technical communication important and what will you use it for? Actually, technical writing will be used by most college graduates as a regular part of their work. It is much more likely that you will use technical writing than either academic or creative writing unless you specifically enter those fields. A few examples of why you will likely need these skills include: getting a job - preparing a resume or curriculum vitae, cover letter, application, and portfolio; doing your job - preparing memos, letters, reports, instructions, case reports, reviews, assignments, descriptions, etc.; and keeping your job - communicating with management, co-workers, peers, patients/students/public. Read more...

Candlesticks and overall technical picture

Candlesticks fit into the overall technical picture, but it should be known that candlestick chart patterns are just one part of a wide array of studies that fit into technical analysis.  Technical analysis spans all chart analysis, and it is even applied to some fundamental analysis statistics. 

Candlesticks are usually traded actively or passively, but few traders deny their influence, especially those that use technical analysis in favor of traditional investing.  Some traders like to use candlesticks as the sole buying and selling signals, while others blend them in with a few other technical indicators to refine their trading.  Day traders and swing traders are much more likely to use candlestick patterns than investors, but that is due largely because of the difference in investing ideologies. Read more...

Technical or fundamental analysis (forecasting)

In this article I compare these two methods of forecasting in the stock market. I give the reasoning that why technical analysis is superior to fundamental analysis.

As you know, technical analysis concentrates on the study of market action, and fundamental analysis concentrates on the economic forces of supply and demand that cause price movements. Read more...

Should you be leasing technical equipment

One of the biggest expenses that any enterprise faces is the purchase of new technical equipment. Given the cash crunch in most small businesses, outright purchase of new equipment might not be feasible. Added to that is the fact that computers and other technological equipment quickly become obsolete. A growing small business may need to refresh its technology in some areas every eighteen months, but investing in the latest gadgetry may be beyond its means. In such a situation, is leasing the best way out?
We’ve put together a primer of the advantages and disadvantages of leasing technical equipment and also the factors you need to consider before making the decision. 
Advantages: Read more...

Outsourcing technical support

Technology, we all have to have it to run our businesses more efficiently. Although technology has allowed us significant increases in productivity and efficiency, they have not come without cost. The level of sophistication necessary to resolve technical issues has also increased; therefore, when a problem occurs, end users generally are not able to fix it themselves and must turn to professional support for help. 

Take this and add the increase of pace in business and you have even bigger problems. Technical issues have to be handled quickly and efficiently. Read more...

Indicators in technical analysis

  Technical analysis has been developed into the complicated science that is in the constant research and development. Started more than hundred years ago with introduction of DOW indexes now technical analysis covers indexes that track different markets, technical indicators that describe various price and volume behaviour, analysis of volatility, trading sentiment, psychology of traders, developing of trading strategies and building trading systems. If hundred years ago traders used only DOW indexes to analyze the market and see the general market trend, now, with revolution in the information technology we have hundreds of technical studies to analyze market. In the current moment, the most often risen question is developing of a trading system based on the several technical indicators - trading system that would allow automating process of making trading decision and excluding emotional factor from the trading.
 
Using several indicators has been always challenging process for many traders. The first question that many investors ask is how many and what technical studies should be used in the market analysis. There is no straight answer on this question. The indicators selection depends on many factors where the trader’s personal trading style and knowledge of the market could be first in the line. However, there could be general reasonable recommendation that could be used by everybody: Read more...

What is technical analysis?

Technical analysis is the outlook of how future financial price will move based on an examination of past price movements. Technical analysis is a lot like a weatherman predicting it will rain or snow or if the favored team in the Super Bowl will cover the spread. You can gather the info you have and make an educated guess or assumption.

Charts are used in a technical analysis to show over a larger period of time how much a price has rose, fallen are stayed the same. Some of the charts used are the Line Chart, which is the basic chart type is a single point plot of the securities price. Read more...

What to look for in a technical analysis system

Do technical analysis methods work? Or perhaps more appropriately asked, how effective are technical analysis methods?

For those that simply believe that technical analysis does not work without having learned it, tried it and validated it, I submit they are missing an opportunity. For those that don’t have the time or energy to do it because of lifestyle constraints (e.g. they work long hours at a stressful job), it is perfectly understandable that they bypass do-it-yourself technical analysis. For this case, I would think stock trading is also out of the question because of the time and effort needed to prepare and execute winning trades. Here, it is understandable that people partake in long-term investments and listen strictly to their financial advisors/brokers. [Witness the debacle of long-term investors locked into their holdings now awaiting recovery through time.]

For stock traders wishing to leverage technical analysis, they have to find the right technical analysis system. And with so many technical analysis indicators, it can become quite confusing, perhaps even conflicting. For example, trying to apply Bollinger Bands, Moving Average Convergence/Divergence and various Moving Average crossing points, it can become very confusing to validate which ones are effective in yielding winning trades on a consistent basis. [If it works half the time, I suggest it is not effective, because the other half means you have losing positions.]

I have read comments and discussions that certain technical analysis indicators simply don’t work. I have personally performed analysis of certain technical analysis indicators and come to the same conclusion. For curiosity sake, learning about the mathematical theory behind a technical analysis indicator is an intellectually stimulating exercise, if you are so inclined. Beyond that, I think it is far more important to functionally validate the technical analysis indicators. i.e. Do they lead to consistently winning trades?

Leveraging technical analysis can be achieved in at least two ways:

1. Do-it-yourself technical analysis with charting software. You analyse the charts and make your trading decisions.

2. Subscribe to a service for buy/sell signals based on technical analysis. You treat the service as a black-box system and follow the buy/sell recommendations.

As long as the do-it-yourself technical analysis or the black-box technical analysis system (or a blend of the two) produces consistently winning trades, then you have validated the effectiveness of the approach and hence have found a winning formula. If you are making profits but wish for higher yields, then by all means, continue to seek and validate other technical analysis methods/systems. The fact that there are various software products available for the trader to devise their own trading system and back-test the method means people are ever seeking more. [Sometime the quest for more is simply an exercise in finding another way that may or may not yield more. But you don’t know until you try.]

To Conclude:

1. Evaluate technical analysis by validating against historical data. Look at the chart, make your trading decision and do the (retro) paper-trading exercise.

2. Validate against your stocks moving forward in the paper-trading exercise.

3. Answer the question: Does it consistently yield winning trades?

StockTradersPlace ( http://stocktradersplace.com ) provides a trend following system based on candlestick technical analysis.  http://stocktradersplace.blogspot.com  provides a "Stock Trading with StockTradersPlace" companion guide. Empower yourself and show that you can repeatedly execute winning trades using StockTradersPlace as an element of your trading tool box. StockTradersPlace provides viewable demo stocks for guest users and a 14-day free trial for sign-up to view all supported stocks.

Copyright © Mar 2009 StockTradersPlace.com

Candlestick technical analysis : an introduction

Feb 21, 2009 copyright © David S.Y. Wong, published in ArticlesBase.com

The Japanese candlestick, hereafter simply referred to as candlestick or candle, is a very effective way to convey the open, high, low, close price points for the period in question, which may be minute, hour, day, week, etc. as supported by the charting software.

The body of the candlestick is defined by the open and close prices. The tails of the candlestick (some call them wicks or shadows) indicate the high and low prices. A color or shading convention is used for the body of the candlestick to convey the up/down direction of the candlestick. An up candle has the closing price higher than the opening price. A down candle has the closing price lower than the opening price. Colors used for the body include red and blue for down candles; green and white for up candles – subject to the convention used in the charting software which may allow user customization.

Visually, candlestick charting is very effective in conveying the up and down periodic movements of the stock price. At a glance, the user is able to see whether a stock closed higher than its opening price (up candle), or vice versa, a stock closed lower than its opening price (down candle). The length of the body as well as the tails show the range of price movement for the stock. And the user is able to follow the progression of candlesticks in successive periods.

There are various candlestick patterns such as doji and hammer (just to cite two from the long list of patterns which may span 1, 2, 3 or even more periods) that are used in candlestick technical analysis where significant conclusions are attached to each pattern.

StockTradersPlace ( http://stocktradersplace.com ) provides a trend following system based on candlestick technical analysis.  http://stocktradersplace.blogspot.com  provides a "Stock Trading with StockTradersPlace" companion guide. Show yourself that you can repeatedly execute winning trades using StockTradersPlace as an element of your trading tool box.

Feb 21, 2009 copyright © David S.Y. Wong, published in ArticlesBase.com

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