Glossary › simple moving average
Trading glossary · indicators
simple moving average
The plain average of the last few closing prices, drawn as a smooth line on the chart.
The fuller meaning
The equal-weighted average of the last N closes. A short SMA such as 20 follows price closely, a long one such as 200 shows the bigger trend; Bollinger Bands are built on a 20-period SMA and the golden and death crosses use the 50 and 200.
simple moving average, also called SMA.
Related words
61.8% level · ATR · ATR expansion · bearish divergence · Bollinger Bands · bullish divergence · crossover · %D · death cross · divergence