Technical analysis

The gauge and the verdict

The section opens with a gauge that runs from Strong sell to Strong buy, a count of how many indicators read Buy, Neutral and Sell, and a short verdict written out as a sentence: which way the readings lean, which groups are carrying that lean, and what stands out.

The count matters as much as the label. A Buy resting on a narrow majority, with most indicators neutral, is a much weaker statement than a Buy where nearly everything agrees. When an asset has too little price history for most indicators, the page says so and gives no lean at all.

Four groups of indicators

The Indicators tab lists every reading with its current figure, a plain description, and its Buy, Neutral or Sell. They are grouped by what they measure:

Trend

Whether price is moving in a direction and how firmly. MACD, ADX, Parabolic SAR and the Ichimoku cloud live here.

Momentum

How fast price is moving and whether that speed is fading. RSI, the Stochastic oscillators, Williams %R, CCI, MFI, rate of change and others.

Volatility

How wide the recent range is and where price sits inside it. Bollinger Bands and Keltner Channels.

Volume

Whether trading activity supports the move. VWAP and the Force Index, with ATR, the accumulation line, on-balance volume and the volume profile shown alongside as context.

Reading by group is the point. Trend and momentum agreeing is a stronger picture than either alone, and a move that volume does not support deserves a second look.

Moving averages

The Moving averages tab shows where the latest close sits against averages of six lengths, from a week of bars to roughly a year, in four styles: simple, exponential, weighted and Wilder's. Shorter averages follow price closely; longer ones describe the underlying direction.

The useful question is whether the short and long ends agree. Price above both is an established advance. Price above the short averages and below the long ones is a rally inside a weaker trend, and the page says which of these it is.

Pivot points

Pivot points turn the previous bar's high, low and close into a ladder of reference prices: a central pivot with support levels below it and resistance levels above. The tab gives the ladder by six methods, including Classic, Fibonacci and Camarilla, and names the nearest support and resistance to the current price.

They are not predictions. They are levels many traders watch, which is exactly why price often reacts around them.

Choosing the bar size

Everything in the section follows the bar size chosen on the chart, from one minute to one week. A daily reading describes the picture over weeks and months. A fifteen-minute reading describes today. The same asset can lean one way on daily bars and the other on intraday bars, and both can be right about their own horizon.

What it can and cannot tell you

Indicators summarise what price has already done. They are good at describing the present state of a market and poor at announcing a turn before it happens. Use the verdict as a quick, consistent read across many assets, then look at the readings behind it.

Nothing here is advice to buy or sell. It is the same arithmetic applied to every symbol, so that you can compare them on equal terms.

Technical analysis, answered