Technical Analysis And Stocks: The Connection
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.
Fundamental analysis views not only the financial opportunities of a company, but also the likelihood of accomplishing these goals in respect to their competitors. Technical analysis, on the other hand, has been successful in use, but not very structured or scientific. Thus, the question again arises, what is the connection between stocks and technical analysis?
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.
Overall, technical analysis is more detailed due to the large amount of terminology used which describes existing trend lines and graphical shapes. Typical investors without the knowledge needed can be easily discouraged when trying to comprehend this type of data. For example many terms used to describe trends are ambiguous and used interchangeably (e.g. elbow, shoulder). This can denote upswings or downswings with leveling off at intervals. This can make it harder for interpretation.
Overall, those who are familiar with investing still question, \”Technical Analysis vs Stocks…Is there a connection?\” in regard to how can these types of analysis can be used everyday. Honestly, the fact that technical analysis is very subjective to the person who uses it, including being a bit imprecise brings concern. Fortunately, since it has been successful on the whole, this tool is still arguably a good one to use for market analysis.
