A Primer on the 200-Day Moving Average

Editor's note: This column is a special holiday bonus for readers of TheStreet.com, written by James Altucher of Street Insight. To sign up for Street Insight, where you can read Altucher's commentary regularly, please click here.

Over the past month, the media have had a field day referring to the 200-day moving average. As in:

"The S&P index just crossed its 200-day moving average. This is a very bullish sign."

"Microsoft crossed its moving average, so we should expect to see a nice upwards move over the next week." ...