Technical Signals · Lesson 2.1
What are moving averages?
A moving average is the average price of a stock over a defined window of days. As new prices come in and old ones drop out, the average moves with the trend.
Why investors use them
Daily prices are noisy. A moving average removes most of the day-to-day jitter so you can see whether a stock is generally trending up, trending down, or flat over the window you chose.
Common windows
- Short windows (10 / 21 days) — react quickly, useful as fast trend signals.
- Medium windows (50 / 100 days) — balance reactivity with stability.
- Long windows (200 days) — the classic long-term trend filter.
Moving averages in FactorSage
FactorSage supports SMA and EMA at the 10, 21, 50, 100, and 200 windows, on both daily and weekly timeframes. You reference them by field names like DAILY_SMA_200, DAILY_EMA_21, or WEEKLY_SMA_50 in strategy rules.
Related
- SMA vs EMATechnical Signals
- Price above SMA 200Technical Signals
- SMAGlossary