Technical analysis is a collection of methods to predict future stock prices taking into account only the past and present data – prices and (optionally) volume. There is no consideration given to the fundamentals of the company or the industry under consideration.
I personally use technical analysis(TA) only after I have zeroed in onto a company that I want to invest in. That is, I use it to determine when to enter (buy) and when to exit (sell). Over and above that – I do not execute blindly the output from TA. I look at the market sentiment, company and industry timing etc. Even so, technical analysis does help me big time with the decision making.
How is TA performed? No need to understand that. Attached is a spreadsheet that will help you carry out TA based on different indicators: Moving average, Moving Average Convergence / Divergence or Relative strength index.
The spreadsheet is here: AutoTech.
How is this spreadsheet different from others available online?
- This sheet doesn’t require you to interpret the graph. While the graph is still created, which you can check, or create additional graphs based on the data, its not really required – you can read the interpretations directly. The sheet gives you buy/sell advice directly based on the indicator you select.
- The sheet does not require you to buy MS Excel if you do not have it. It works fine with Openoffice Portable. I have already talked about portable apps – this one is free as well.