2. What is the most important factor of a price chart?

The cornerstone of technical analysis theory is that prices discount all known information, and forecasts, and that these prices move in trends. Therefore, the most important factor to determine when looking at a price chart is the direction of the prevailing trend. Trends are evident in all degrees, from intra-day trends in 5-minute bar charts to trends of a few weeks on daily charts, to multi-year trends on weekly and monthly charts. Regardless of magnitude, an uptrend is defined as a series of prices with higher highs and higher lows. A downtrend is most simply a series of lower highs and lower lows. sideways trends

also develop and occur when neither an uptrend nor downtrend is evident. In an uptrend, a trendline can be drawn bv connecting increasingly higher lows. while in a down trend a trendline is usually drawn from increasingly lower highs. The importance and strength of the trendline is determined by the length of time the line exists and the number of times that the trendline halts price movement. Thus. the longer the trendline has existed and the more prices bounce off the trendline, the stronger the trend. In a bull market, the trendline will tend to act as price support, in a bear market the trendline will tend to offer price resistance. Supply pressures

during a bull market will come into play at support levels. pushing prices up off support as supply diminishes. In a bear market supply will increase on upticks, keeping prices under pressure. Demand acts in the reverse order, increasing on price dips in a bull market, decreasing on price upticks in a bear market. Thus. some technicians (particularly those with an economic bent) will refer to a bull trendline as a supply line. Conversely, during a bear market, resistance will be found along the trendline pushing prices lower and lower. This trendline may be viewed as the demand line. indicating where demand will be insufficient to push prices to higher levels. The preferred method of looking at trends is to know the long term trend, multi-year, and then work to daily of intra-day trends.

Channels

Once a trendline is established, technicians attempt to identify a price channel which will contain prices. These are most commonly drawn as parallel lines from a significant high (in a downtrend) or a significant low (in an uptrend). Identifying a change in trend can be a simple matter using technical analysis. Any violation of the current trend confirms a change in trend. For instance, a series of consecutive lower lows and lower highs, following a mn-up in price, could indicate a change in the price trend from up to down. Early identification

of a change in trend may be signalled bv a price breakout

through the trendline and out of the price channel. Trendline and channel drawing is a subiective art, so there are several things to look for to validate the channel penetration.

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First, it is important that the close penetrates the channel.

Penetrations of the high or the low are more often indications of

temporary overbought or oversold conditions in the market,

rather than a change in trend. Second, the extent of penetration

of the close is important. There is a general technical rule of

thumb, that 3% of current market price is the minimum amount

of penetration through the trendline required to validate the

breakout. This should be adjusted to market and trader

requirements though. Third, increased volume on the dav of

prenetration is considered the final confirmation of a legitimate

breakout.

Moving Averages

Moving averages are the most versatile and widely used of

all technical indicators. Basically, the averages are a smoothing, or trend following device with a time lag. It is important to note that the averages are a lagging indicator and should be used for confirmation of trend.

Moving averages are simply the averages of a set amount of closing price data. For example, if a 9-day average is desired, the closing prices for the last 9 days are added and the total is divided by 9. The most common way to calculate the moving average is to work from the total of the last 9 days' closing prices. Each day the new close is added to the total and the close 10 days back is subtracted. The new total is then divided by the number of days (9). Shorter moving averages e.g. 4-day are more sensitive and hug the price action more closely than the longer averages (30-day, 100-day).

One method used to generate trading signals is to look for

price action to cross over the moving average. Another way is to use a double crossover method. This means that a buy signal is produced when the shorter (9-day) average crosses above the longer (18-day) and a sell signal occurs when the 9-day crosses below the 18-dav moving average. Although this technique of using two averages together lags the market a bit more than the use of a single average, it will produce fewer whipsaws.

Moving averages lag price movements, but this is

acceptable as the average will smooth out "noisy" data. Moving averages can be constructed for any period of time one chooses, but the higher number of days averaged, the more sluggish the average becomes. Many commodity traders find that shorter averages, such as the 3-day, tends to be too volatile. They use instead, a combination of averages. A popular combination is the 4, 9 and 18-day averages. For a longer-term indicator, a 30-day average may also be used, along with 50-day averages or longer. As the moving averages are a lagging technical indicator,

they will almost never position one in the market at precisely the right time. Instead, they help to take profits from the middle of a trend and hold losses to a minimum.