Technical Indicators and Overlays
Technical Indicators and Overlays are the often squiggly lines found above, below and on-top-of the price information on a technical chart. This section describes the various kinds of technical indicators and overlays that are available here at StockCharts.com.
- Introduction to Technical Indicators and Oscillators - An in-depth introduction to the various kind of technical indicators and oscillators out there. A "must read" article for StockCharts.com users.
- Introduction to Market Indicators - An in-depth introduction to popular market indicators found on StockCharts.com.
- Accumulation/Distribution Line - Combines price and volume to show how money may be flowing into or out of a stock.
- Aroon - Shows whether a stock is trending or oscillating.
- Average Directional Index (ADX) - Shows whether a stock is trending or oscillating.
- Average True Range (ATR) - Measures a stock's volatility.
- Bollinger Bands - A chart overlay that shows the upper and lower limits of 'normal' price movements.
- Bollinger Band Width - Shows the distance between a stock's Bollinger Bands.
- Commodity Channel Index (CCI) - Shows a stock's variation from its 'typical' price.
- Chaikin Money Flow (CMF) - Combines price and volume to show how money may be flowing into or out of a stock. Alternative to Accumulation/Distribution Line.
- Chaikin Oscillator - Combines price and volume to show how money may be flowing into or out of a stock. Based on Accumulation/Distribution Line.
- Moving Average Convergence/Divergence (MACD) - Difference of two EMAs that shows a stock's momentum and direction.
- Money Flow Index (MFI) - Combines a stock's 'typical' price with its volume to show how money may be flowing into or out of the stock.
- Moving Averages - Chart overlays that show the 'average' value over time. Both Simple Moving Averages (SMAs) and Exponential Moving Averages (EMAs) are explained.
- Moving Average Envelopes - A chart overlay consisting of a channel formed from simple moving averages.
- On Balance Volume (OBV) - Combines price and volume in a very simple way to show how money may be flowing into or out of a stock.
- Parabolic SAR - A chart overlay that shows good 'trailing stop' (i.e., sell) points graphically.
- Percentage Price Oscillator (PPO) - A percentage-based version of the MACD indicator.
- Percentage Volume Oscillator (PVO) - The PPO indicator applied to volume instead of price.
- Price Channels - A chart overlay that shows a channel made from the highest high and lowest low for a given period of time.
- Price Relative - Technical indicator that compares the performance of two stocks to each other by dividing their price data.
- Rabbitt Q-Rank - Paul Rabbit's proprietary indicator that rates a stock based on technical and fundamental factors.
- Rate of Change (ROC) and Momentum - Shows the speed at which a stock's price is changing.
- Relative Strength Index (RSI) - Shows how strongly a stock is moving in its current direction.
- Standard Deviation (Volatility) - A statistical measure of a stock's volatility.
- Stochastic Oscillator (Fast, Slow, and Full) - Shows how a stock's price is doing relative to past movements. Fast, Slow and Full Stochastics are explained.
- StochRSI - Combines Stochastics with the RSI indicator. Helps you see RSI changes more clearly.
- TRIX - A triple-smoothed moving average of price movements.
- Ultimate Oscillator - Combines long-term, mid-term and short-term moving averages into one number.
- Volume by Price - A chart overlay with a horizontal histogram showing the amount of activity at various price levels.
- Williams %R - Uses Stochastics to determine overbought and oversold levels.
- ZigZag - A chart overlay that shows filtered price movements that are greater than a given percentage.
