The stock market is chock-full of long-term trend indicators that help traders assess how stocks perform over a period. The 200-day Moving Average or MA is one of these long-term trend indicators and its foundation depends on the average closing prices on securities over 200 days. The 200 day moving average helps traders and investors gauge how a particular stock is performing, what the market trends are and whether any resistance levels exist in the market.
Here, we will take a deep dive into what the 200 day moving average is all about and how it can be used to an investor and trader’s advantage.
Understanding 200 Day Moving Average in Detail
To understand the 200 hundred day moving average, it is first important to gain a basic knowledge of the concept of a moving average. The main aim of a moving average is to help decipher trends and patterns by averaging past data of stocks. The moving average is a trading indicator that can also be indicated on technical charts. With the help of such a visual medium, it becomes easier for investors and traders to interpret patterns.
To help you understand the concept of the moving average better, here is an example using the closing prices of a security over the last five days.
Date
| Closing Price
|
15-Dec-2024
| ₹120
|
16-Dec-2024
| ₹90
|
17-Dec-2024
| ₹89
|
18-Dec-2024
| ₹110
|
19-Dec-2024
| ₹105
|
For the stock above, the 5-day moving average can be calculated by adding all the prices and then dividing the result by the number of trading sessions. Since the number of trading sessions in this case is 5, this is what the calculation would look like:
(1120+90+89+110+105)/5 = 514/5 = 102.8
This is the same way that a 200 day moving average works. The only difference is that instead of the closing prices of stocks for the past 5 days, the closing prices of stocks for the past 200 days are calculated. Since the 200 day moving average is a larger collection of historical data, the chances of it being more accurate regarding the price trend of security will hold.
How to Calculate 200 Day Moving Average in Finance
Calculating the 200 day moving average is fairly simple. The closing price for the last 200 days of a stock needs to be added and then divided by the number of trading sessions. In this case, the trading sessions would come to 200. Since this is a long-term moving average, it will give traders and investors more accurate results and help them understand the price movemens of the stock better.
Importance of 200 Day Moving Average
With the help of the 200 day moving average which is a long-term moving average, traders and investors can identify stronger stocks, figure out the market trends and place any stop losses in their orders accordingly..
Recognize Fundamentally Strong Securities
With the help of the 200 DMA, investors and traders can filter out the fundamentally healthier securities and move them away from the ones that are not. If, after the calculation, certain stocks are seen to have performed better than the moving average during the 200 day period, they are thought to have strong fundamentals.
Used as Support and Resistance
By analysing the moving average chart, traders would be able to recognize the price levels that have not been breached by the security, through the MA trend line. As an extension of this, for investors and traders, the 200 DMA also acts as a reliable resistance level. Simply put, during the days when the 200 day moving average trend line moves upwards, going long when the prices deflect off the trend line can act as a level of support. When doing this, a trader is going in with the expectation that the stock prices would have bottomed out and would now go up. However, with a sharp rise in the trend line, traders tend to assume that it points toward a trend reversal.