Many investors will confuse a trendline with momentum. However, as an event derived from astute technical analysis, Momentum tells investors a lot more than a cursory glance at a security price's trend line. Using technical analysis and technical events like Momentum, investors are able to determine whether a price is likely to continue its trend or reverse and head the other way.

Defining Momentum
Sharing similarities with the Moving Average Convergence-Divergence (MACD), Momentum tells investors how much a security's price has changed over a certain time period. Investors with a general understanding of technical analysis methods, and this method in particular, will be able to more accurately determine whether day-to-day changes in price are merely a reflection of a market's systemic behavior or if it is signaling a more permanent trend.

More specifically, Momentum tells investors about the strength of the underlying price trend. Using this type of technical analysis allows investors to determine overbought and oversold conditions in a security and decide whether opening or closing a position is called for. Such decisions are normally impossible to make based on security prices alone.

Calculating Momentum
For do-it-yourself investors, completing your own technical analysis can be burdensome thanks to the often complicated mathematical demands needed to pinpoint events and patterns. With Momentum, the math is not all that difficult or involved.

 

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