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.
What Is Momentum Similar to the Moving Average Convergence-Divergence (MACD) oscillator, Momentum measures how much a security’s price has changed over a given time. With a understanding of technical analysis and this particular event, investors will understand whether a slight pull back in price is part of the normal fluctuations of stock prices or if it is indeed a bearish signal for the price.
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.
Figuring Out Momentum When it comes to completing your own technical analysis, you may encounter difficulty or frustration with the sometimes complicated mathematical formula. Luckily with Momentum, the calculation is rather simple. To obtain a Momentum reading, you take the closing price of a security, divide it into the closing price from ten periods ago, and multiply it by 100. In other words: Close $ /(Close 10 time-periods ago) * 100].
Using Momentum To Make Trade Decisions For help deciding on a Momentum-based trade, the investor must simply determine whether the Momentum value is greater than or less than zero. For amounts higher than zero, the a bullish signal is triggered and for amounts less than zero, a bearish signal is triggered. As a caveat, investors also need to understand that progressively higher low values might suggest a continuation of an existing trend and not a reversal. In most instances, investors should only execute a trade if the price itself turns around (e.g. on a sell, don’t sell based on Momentum, but sell when the price begins to fall).
When it comes to trading on technical analysis events, investors should always use other events to confirm or refute positions they are currently considering. Never make a trade based on one technical signal. Momentum can often serve to confirm or refute other events or even the underlying price trend in a particular security.
Since Momentum and many other events triggered by technical analysis rely heavily on mathematical calculations, trading software is recommended for the individual investor. Such software can monitor many different technical trends and some of the more advanced system will make buy and sell recommendations.
With more than 16 years of financial services experience, Chris believes that Dividend Funds are instrumental to proper Investment Management Strategies.