The Basics of Technical Analysis

No matter what your approach is to the market, you've undoubtedly taken a look at the chart of a stock or an index. But the information you take away from that chart does depend heavily on your approach. While many people see simply a line representing price history, technical analysts see much, much more.

Technical analysts study past price movement for the purpose of understanding what future prices may look like. They review charts of a particular company or index's price action and examine the changes in price over a particular period of time.

If you want to think more like a technical analyst, this report is a good place to start. However, it's not meant to be an exhaustive examination. Its intent is to provide a basic introductory overview for people unfamiliar with chart-reading and hopefully spark their interest. That said, there is a lot more to learn about each aspect presented here, so I'd encourage anyone interested to pursue it further, and RealMoney is a good resource to use. Now, let's move on to the charts.

Start With the Charting Basics

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