A/D Line
The A/D Line is the most widely used indicator measuring market breadth. It represents a cumulative total of the number of stocks advancing vs. the number of stocks declining. When the A/D Line rises, it means that more stocks are rising than declining (and vice versa). BigCharts calculates the AD Line for all markets and automatically selects the appropriate market indicator for your focus security. For example, if you are analysing a chart on IBM which trades on the NYSE, and you choose the A/D Line, the system will automatically apply the A/D Line for the NYSE.

Bollinger Bands
Bollinger Bands, created by John Bollinger, are a type of envelope (or trading band) plotted at standard deviation levels above and below a moving average. Because standard deviation measures volatility, the bands widen during volatile markets and contract during calmer periods.

As stated in Steven Achelis's, Technical Analysis from A to Z (Chicago: Irwin, 1995), Bollinger has the following to say about this indicator:

"Sharp price changes tend to occur after the bands tighten, after volatility lessens.
"When prices move outside the bands, a continuation of the current trend is implied.
"Bottoms and tops made outside the bands followed by bottoms and tops made inside the bands call for reversals in the trend.
"A move that originates at one band tends to go all the way to the other band. This observation is useful when projecting price targets." (p. 72)
This indicator is displayed in two bands that are plotted at standard deviation levels above and below a moving average. BigCharts calculates the moving average using a time period of 20 bars, i.e., 20 frequency intervals.

Bollinger Bands provide a view of the current trading range. They can be used with other indicators to determine when it's time to buy or sell.

The Bollinger Bands indicator in BigCharts references the following fixed parameters:

Measurement Time Period: 20 bars

Compare to Index

Index		Country
DJIA		USA
S&P 500		USA
NASDAQ		USA
Russell 2000		USA
FTSE 100		United Kingdom
TECHMARK		United Kingdom
FTSE All Share		United Kingdom
DAX		Germany
Neuer Market		Germany
M DAX		Germany
CAC 40		France
OMX		Sweden
OMX CAP		Sweden
OMX SX GENERAL		Sweden
AEX STOCK		Netherlands
AEX INFO-TECH		Netherlands
AEX MID-CAP		Netherlands

Compare to Symbol
The "Symbols" input box allows you to compare the relative price performance of your focus security to that of up to nine other symbols. You must separate each symbol by either a space or a comma. For example, if your focus security is International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM) and you want to compare its performance to Microsoft Corp. (NYSE: MSFT), you would type "MSFT" in the "symbols" input box and click the "Draw Chart" button. You will notice that based on a one-year comparison, MSFT has outperformed IBM by a wide margin.

Custom Time Frame
The "Custom Time Frame" option allows you to specify the exact starting and ending dates for your chart. We have provided two entry boxes labelled "From" and "To" for this purpose. Please enter your dates in mm/dd/yy format.

Directional Movement Index (DMI)
DMI helps provide an indication of how strong the directional movement (trend) is in a stock. It is comprised of three components. The first ADX rates the directional movement (trend) of a stock on a scale of 0-100. Generally speaking the higher the number the more a stock is trending and the more it is a candidate for a trend following system. The next two components help decipher what the trend is showing. DMI + is a measure of upward or positive movement in a stock. DMI - is a measure of negative or downward movement in a stock. A buy signal is given when DMI + crosses DMI - and a sell signal is given when DMI - crosses over DMI +. The ADX line is then used to measure the strength of these signals. Traders typically like to act upon these signals when the ADX is at a high number.

EMA
Moving averages are among the most popular technical indicators. The traditional interpretation of moving averages focuses on price movement relative to the average itself. Investors are typically "bullish" when the price moves above its moving average and "bearish" when the price falls below its moving average. Moving averages are also very useful in smoothing noisy data. Applying a 200-bar moving average, for example, will give you a clear view of a security's long-term historical trend.
A Simple Moving Average (SMA) is calculated by adding the closing prices for the most recent n intervals of time (or "bars") and then dividing by n. For example, a 21-bar moving average references the closing price of a security over the past 21 bars. The indicator sums all 21 closing prices and divides by 21, which produces the average price over the past 21 bars. The SMA gives equal weight to each bar.

Some market technicians believe that more weight should be attributed to more recent price action. These analysts may prefer to use the Exponential Moving Average (EMA) because it does just this. For a more detailed discussion of EMA and how it is calculated, see Thomas Meyers, The Technical Analysis Course (Chicago: Irwin, 1989).

Note: If you choose a multiple moving average, the system will, by default, determine the lengths of the additional time periods based on the number in the input box. For example, if you type "9" in the input box and select "SMA (3-Line)" from the drop-down box, the system will plot three moving averages: 9 bars, 18 bars and 27 bars in length. SMA 2 is twice the length of SMA 1 and SMA 3 is three times the length of SMA 1. To override this default behaviour, see the Chart FAQ on moving averages.

Fast Stochastic
Both the Fast Stochastic and Slow Stochastic oscillators are used by market technicians as a timing indicator for signals of market reversal. The Fast Stochastic will provide more signals than the Slow Stochastic, although some analysts prefer the Slow Stochastic, believing it is less prone to whipsaws.
The Stochastic oscillator compares where a security's price has closed relative to its price range over a specifically identified period of time. George Lane, who developed this indicator, theorized that in an upwardly-trending market, prices tend to close near their high, and in a downwardly-trending market, prices tend to close near their low. Further, as an upward trend matures, price tends to close further away from its high, and as a downward trend matures, price tends to close away from its low. Lane's theory is that these are the conditions which indicate the beginning of a trend reversal.
The Stochastic indicator is plotted as two lines, the %D line and the %K line, with values ranging from 0 to 100. Readings above 80 are strong and could indicate that price is closing near its high. Readings below 20 are strong and could indicate that price is closing near its low.
For an excellent discussion of the Stochastic indicators, please refer to John Murphy's Technical Analysis of the Futures Markets (New York: New York Institute of Finance, 1986).
The Fast Stochastic indicator in BigCharts references the following default parameters:
Time Period for %K: 5 Bars
Time Period for %D: 5 Bars

Frequency
The "Frequency" drop-down box allows you to chart the data for a given time period on an intraday, daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly perspective. Select which frequency suits your needs. Typically, choosing a weekly or monthly perspective when looking at several years of data makes it easier to identify long-term trends. Daily charts are useful for active traders and short-term time period charts.

The "5-Minute", "15-Minute" and "Hourly" frequency are used for intraday charts and the remaining choices are applicable to end-of-day charts.

Lower Indicator
The "Lower Indicator" drop-down boxes in Interactive Charting allow you to choose from several popular technical indicators. All indicators in this section will plot in the lower plot of the chart.
Volume
Volume+
Relative Strength Index (RSI)
Moving Average Convergence/Divergence (MACD)
On Balance Volume (OBV)
Fast Stochastic
Slow Stochasitc
Rate of Change (ROC)
Williams %R
Money Flow
Volume Accumulation
Volatility Fast
Volatility Slow
Momentum
Ultimate Oscillator
% Short Interest
Rolling EPS
P/E Ratio
P/E Ranges
Rolling Dividend
Yield
Up/Down Ratio
Arms Index (TRIN)
A/D Line (Breadth)
A/D Line (Daily)
% Compare
After selecting an indicator, click on "Draw Chart" to update your chart. Then, click on the "Chart Help" hyperlink below the chart for context sensitive help on the indicator you have chosen

MA Envelopes
A Moving Average shows the average value of a security's price over a period of time. The value is calculated by adding the closing prices at each interval of time (or "bar") within a time period and then dividing by the number of bars in that time period.
Depending upon the number of bars you use to calculate this figure, these lines may be very sharp (for, say, a 7- or 12-day moving average), or very smooth (for, say, a 40-day moving average).

The Moving Average Envelopes indicator in BigCharts references the following fixed parameters:

SMA: 9 Bars
Deviance: 2%

MACD
Gerald Appel's MACD (Moving Average Convergence/Divergence) indicator shows the relationship between two moving averages of prices. MACD is derived by dividing one moving average by another. It is based on the point spread difference between two exponential moving averages (EMA) of the closing price.
The basic MACD trading rule is to sell when the MACD falls below its signal line and to buy when the MACD rises above its signal line.

Some analysts use MACD as an oscillator and believe it is most effective in wide-swinging trading markets. They believe that when the MACD rises dramatically, it is likely that the security's price is overextending and will soon return to more realistic levels.

Other analysts prefer to use MACD as a trend-following indicator, attempting to spot divergences in chart patterns. For example, a bearish divergence occurs when the MACD is making new lows while prices fail to reach new lows. A bullish divergence occurs when the MACD is making new highs while prices fail to reach new highs. These divergences are most significant when they occur at relatively overbought/oversold levels.

The MACD indicator in BigCharts references the following default parameters:

First Moving Average: 12 Bars

Momentum
The Momentum indicator measures the amount that a security's price has changed over a given time span. The Momentum indicator displays the rate of change as a ratio.

The Momentum indicator can be used as a trend-following oscillator or as a leading indicator.

Used as a trend-following oscillator, technical analysts typically buy when the indicator bottoms and turns up and sell when the indicator peaks and turns down. If the Momentum indicator reaches extremely high values and then turns down, you should assume prices will probably go still higher.

The method of using the Momentum indicator as a leading indicator assumes that market tops are typically identified by a rapid price increase and market bottoms end with price declines. As the market peaks, the Momentum indicator will climb sharply and then fall off, diverging from the continued upward or sideways movement of the price. Similarly, at a market bottom, the Momentum indicator will drop sharply and then begin to climb well ahead of prices.

The Momentum indicator in BigCharts references the following default parameters:

Measurement Time Period: 12 Bars

Money Flow
The Money Flow indicator attempts to measure the amount of money buying a stock vs. the amount of money selling a stock. It does this by assuming that when a stock closes higher than its open, all volume associated with that trading period results from buyers. It further assumes that when a stock closes lower than its open, all volume associated with that trading period results from sellers. Although these assumptions are overly simplistic, money flow can be a useful indicator when analysing the general buying and selling pressure on a stock

Moving Averages
The "Moving Averages" drop-down box in Interactive Charting allows you to choose from several popular moving averages using SMA or EMA. The input box immediately to the right of the drop-down box allows you to adjust the parameter(s) of each moving average. Moving averages will always plot in the upper area of the chart.

SMA
SMA (2-line)
SMA (3-line)
EMA
EMA (2-line)
EMA (3-line)

After selecting an indicator, click on "Draw Chart" to update your chart. Then, click on the "Chart Help" hyperlink below the chart for context sensitive help on the indicator you have chosen.

On Balance Volume (OBV)
On Balance Volume (OBV) is a momentum indicator that relates volume to price change.
On Balance Volume is a running total of volume calculated by adding the day's volume to a cumulative total when the price closes up, and subtracting the day's volume when the security's price closes down. It shows if volume is flowing into or out of a security. When the security closes higher than the previous close, all of the day's volume is considered "up" volume. When the security closes lower than the previous close, all of the day's volume is considered "down" volume

P/E Ranges
The P/E Ranges indicator displays the range of the stock's P/E ratio over given periods of time. This indicator is only available when you choose weekly, monthly, quarterly or yearly time periods for your chart. Once you have chosen a time period and time frame for your chart, the indicator will display solid bars showing the high and low range of the stock's P/E ratio during each time period.

P/E Ratio
The P/E ratio is the most widely used measure of a stock's relative valuation. The P/E ratio is determined by dividing the stock's price by its rolling 52-week earnings per share.

Parabolic SAR
The Parabolic Time/Price System developed by Welles Wilder, is used to set price stops and it is usually referred to as the stop-and-reversal (SAR) indicator.
"The system is designed to allow more leeway or tolerance for contratrend price fluctuation early in a new trade, then to progressively tighten a protective trailing stop order as the trend matures. To accomplish this, it employs a series of progressively shorter, exponentially smoothed moving averages each period that price moves to a new extreme in the expected trend direction."
(Robert W. Colby and Thomas A. Meyers, The Encyclopedia of Technical Market Indicators [New York: Irwin, 1988], 379.)

Some technical analysts believe that the Parabolic SAR provides excellent exit points. They use this indicator to close long positions when the price falls below the SAR and close short positions when the price rises above the SAR.

This concept is explained thoroughly in Wilder's book, New Concepts in Technical Trading Systems (Trend Research, 1978).

Price Channel
As stated in Robert W. Colby and Thomas A. Meyers's The Encyclopedia of Technical Market Indicators (New York: Irwin, 1988), Steven L. Kille has this to say about the Price Channel indicator:
"Price Channel is one of the simplest and oldest trend-following models. It requires no calculations. The rules are: Buy when the weekly closing price moves up to a new 20-period high; sell and sell short when the weekly closing price moves down to a new 20-period low. In other words, when price moves out of its n-period range, go in the direction of this new trend." (p. 392)

Rate of Change (ROC)
The Rate of Change indicator measures a security's percentage change in price over a fixed period of time. The Rate of Change indicator available in BigCharts measures your chart's focus symbol's percentage change in price over rolling 10-bar time periods.

For example, if you are plotting the daily price performance of IBM and you apply the Rate of Change indicator, you will see a line that plots the percentage change in price of IBM over the rolling 10-day periods.

The Rate of Change indicator in BigCharts references the following default parameters:

Measurement Time Period: 10 Bars

Relative Strength Index (RSI)
Relative Strength Index (RSI) is a momentum indicator which measures a security's price relative to itself and its past performance, thereby indicating its internal strength.
RSI quantifies price momentum. It depends solely on the changes in closing prices. RSI is less affected by sharp rises or drops in a security's price performance and, therefore, may give a better velocity reading than other indicators.

RSI is calculated by taking the average of the closes of the up bars (the up frequency intervals) and dividing them by the average of the closes of the down bars. The time frame specified determines the volatility of the indicator. For instance, a 9-day time period under study will be more volatile than a 21-day time span.

The RSI indicator in BigCharts references the following default parameters:

Rolling Dividend
The rolling dividend indicator plots a stock or mutual fund's rolling 52-week dividend as dollars per share. This indicator will show you when a company or mutual fund raises or lowers the dividends it pays its shareholders.

Rolling EPS
The rolling Earnings Per Share indicator plots the focus symbol's 12-month rolling earnings over the time period requested.

% Short Interest
The % Short Interest indicator is updated monthly and is only available on NYSE listed stocks. A stock's % Short Interest is determined by dividing the number of shares sold short (as reported by the NYSE exchange) divided by the number of shares outstanding multiplied by 100.
Many traders watch short interest closely. As the % Short Interest indicator rises, it reflects a heightening bearish sentiment among investors. As it falls, it suggests that short sellers are becoming more bullish on the stock's short-term price movements.
It is common for some traders to use the % Short Interest indicator as a contrary indicator. Oftentimes as the % Short Interest climbs higher, and if the stock price continues to rise, there will be pressure on the short sellers to cover their positions by buying shares in the stock thereby increasing the price even further.

Show All Events
This indicator will place "E", "S" and "D" milestones on your chart which reflect when a company announces stock splits (S), dividends (D) and earnings per share (E)

Show Dividends
This indicator will place "D" milestones on your chart showing when your focus company or mutual fund issued a stock dividend.
Note: no milestones will appear if your chart's focus security issued no dividends during the time period in question

Show Earnings
This indicator will place "E" milestones on your chart showing when your focus company released their earnings per share to the market. When a company has released earnings greater than its earnings for the same period one year ago, BigCharts will display an upward pointing triangle. When a company releases earnings that are lower than its earnings for the same period one year ago, BigCharts will display a downward pointing triangle. This feature is very helpful for viewing each company's earnings trend from quarter to quarter.
Note: no milestones will appear if your chart's focus security issued no earnings per share during the time period in question.

Show Splits
This indicator will place "S" milestones on your chart showing when your focus company issued a stock split.
Note: no milestones will appear if your chart's focus security issued no splits during the time period in question

Slow Stochasitc
Both the Fast Stochastic and Slow Stochastic oscillators are used by market technicians as a timing indicator for signals of market reversal. The Fast Stochastic will provide more signals than the Slow Stochastic, although some analysts prefer the Slow Stochastic, believing it is less prone to whipsaws.

The Stochastic oscillator compares where a security's price has closed relative to its price range over a specifically identified period of time. George Lane, who developed this indicator, theorized that in an upwardly-trending market, prices tend to close near their high, and in a downwardly-trending market, prices tend to close near their low. Further, as an upward trend matures, price tends to close further away from its high, and as a downward trend matures, price tends to close away from its low. Lane's theory is that these are the conditions which indicate the beginning of a trend reversal.

The Stochastic indicator is plotted as two lines, the %D line and the %K line, with values ranging from 0 to 100. Readings above 80 are strong and could indicate that price is closing near its high. Readings below 20 are strong and could indicate that price is closing near its low.

For an excellent discussion of the Stochastic indicators, please refer to John Murphy's Technical Analysis of the Futures Markets (New York: New York Institute of Finance, 1986).

The Slow Stochastic indicator in BigCharts references the following default parameters:

Time Period for %Kslow: ? Bars
Time Period for %Dslow: ? Bars

SMA
Moving averages are among the most popular technical indicators. The traditional interpretation of moving averages focuses on price movement relative to the average itself. Investors are typically "bullish" when the price moves above its moving average and "bearish" when the price falls below its moving average. Moving averages are also very useful in smoothing noisy data. Applying a 200-bar moving average, for example, will give you a clear view of a security's long-term historical trend.
A Simple Moving Average (SMA) is calculated by adding the closing prices for the most recent n intervals of time (or "bars") and then dividing by n. For example, a 21-bar moving average references the closing price of a security over the past 21 bars. The indicator sums all 21 closing prices and divides by 21, which produces the average price over the past 21 bars. The SMA gives equal weight to each bar.

Some market technicians believe that more weight should be attributed to more recent price action. These analysts may prefer to use the Exponential Moving Average (EMA) because it does just this. For a more detailed discussion of EMA and how it is calculated, see Thomas Meyers, The Technical Analysis Course (Chicago: Irwin, 1989).

Note: If you choose a multiple moving average, the system will, by default, determine the lengths of the additional time periods based on the number in the input box. For example, if you type "9" in the input box and select "SMA (3-Line)" from the drop-down box, the system will plot three moving averages: 9 bars, 18 bars and 27 bars in length. SMA 2 is twice the length of SMA 1 and SMA 3 is three times the length of SMA 1. To override this default behaviour, see the Chart FAQ on moving averages.

Time
Please select the time period you would like charted from the drop-down box labelled Time. The "1 day", "2 days" and "5 days" options use intraday pricing data and the remaining choices use end-of-day pricing. Note: if you would like to chart all data available in our database on a given symbol select "All Data" from the list.

Ultimate Oscillator
As stated in Steven Achelis's, Technical Analysis from A to Z (Chicago: Irwin, 1995), pp. 293-294, oscillators compare a security's smoothed price with its price n periods ago. The value of oscillators can vary greatly depending on the number of time periods used during calculation. The Ultimate Oscillator, developed by Larry Williams, uses weighted sums of three oscillators, each of which uses a different time period.
The three oscillators are based on Williams's definitions of buying and selling "pressure."
Williams recommends that you initiate a trade following a divergence and a breakout in the Ultimate Oscillator's trend.
The Ultimate Oscillator indicator in BigCharts references the following default parameters:
First Oscillator Time Period: 7 Bars
Second Oscillator Time Period: 14 Bars
Third Oscillator Time Period: 28 Bars

Upper Indicator
The "Upper Indicators" drop-down box in Interactive Charting allows you to choose from several popular technical indicators. All indicators in this section will plot in the upper area of the chart.

MA Envelopes
Bollinger Bands
Parabolic SAR
Volume by Price
Price Channel
Show Splits
Show Earnings
Show Dividends
Show All Events
A/D Line

After selecting an indicator, click on "Draw Chart" to update your chart. Then, click on the "Chart Help" hyperlink below the chart for context sensitive help on the indicator you have chosen

Volatility Fast
Volatility may be defined as the percentage price change or fluctuation over a given period of time. To obtain the correct perspective, it is important to look at ratios or percentage changes rather than at point changes, because the latter are influenced too much by the level of prices.
Volatility can also be defined as the widening of the range between the high and low prices.
Measurement Time Period: 21 bars

Volatility Slow
Volatility may be defined as the percentage price change or fluctuation over a given period of time. To obtain the correct perspective, it is important to look at ratios or percentage changes rather than at point changes, because the latter are influenced too much by the level of prices.
Volatility can also be defined as the widening of the range between the high and low prices.
Measurement Time Period: 21 bars

Volume
Volume is the number of shares traded during a specified time period, i.e., day, week or month

Volume Accumulation
The Volume Accumulation indicator, developed by Mark Chaiken, is a modification of the traditional On Balance Volume (OBV) indicator. Instead of assigning all the period's volume to either buyers or sellers, the Volume Accumulator uses a proportional amount of volume based on the relationship between the closing price and its intra-period mean price. In effect, the indicator is measuring shades of grey that traditional volume indicators like OBV miss.
However, if prices close at the period's high or low, all volume for that period will be assigned accordingly, regardless of the relationship to the intra-period mean price.

Movement of the oscillator above the zero line measures buying pressure, while movement below the zero line measures selling pressure.

Volume by Price
The volume by price indicator shows you the level of trading volume relative to the price of your focus security. For example, if you are charting IBM and you apply the Volume by Price indicator, BigCharts will create a bar chart on top of the price chart showing the distribution of trading volume at different price levels for IBM.
This is useful in determining where the majority of historical trading volume occurred and may help you find meaningful support and resistance lines.

Support lines are used to determine at what price buyers are likely to come into the market and support a stock. Resistance lines are used to determine at what price sellers may unload their stock thereby driving the stock price lower. Remember, these are very subjective measures and by no means is the Volume by Price indicator sufficient in and of itself to mark either support or resistance lines

Volume+
The Volume+ indicator identifies by coloured bars when the trading volume contributed to a gain in price and when the trading volume was associated with a loss in price. The colours are labelled in the legend above the indicator.
In addition to the colour coding, the Volume+ indicator displays a symbol's 50-day average volume as a reference point

Williams %R
The Williams %R is a momentum indicator that attempts to measure overbought (bearish) and oversold (bullish) levels. According to some market analysts, when the indicator reaches levels of 80-100, it suggests the security is oversold, and readings in the 0-20 range signal overbought conditions.

The Williams %R indicator in BigCharts references the following default parameters:

Measurement Time Period: 10 Bars

Yield
The yield indicator plots the stock or mutual fund's rolling 52-week dividend yield. The dividend yield is calculated for each period by dividing the stock's 52-week rolling dividend by its closing price and multiplying by 100.