If you want to go short against an uptrend, wait for the price to close below the 50 day moving average before you look to short (and vice versa for long). Using this great tool can help you narrow your results and scan specifically for stocks nearing their 50-day moving average. This way, you can practice your edge and analyze your trades more efficiently. We place a stop-loss order below the bottom prior to the cross. The trade needs to be held until the two moving averages create a bearish sell signal. Whenever the price breaks the 50-day SMA, you should open a trade in the direction of the breakout.

• As mentioned, moving average tends to identify the average price of an asset in a certain period.
• In unpredictable or choppy markets, the same can’t necessarily be said.
• We place a stop-loss order below the bottom prior to the cross.

This moving average helps identify possible support and resistance points while indicating whether the trend is up or down, depending on the considerably longer period. SMA is one of the most critical indicators in technical analysis and is usually the most straightforward strategy utilized in trading. Technical analysts and day traders refer to it as “moving” since the stock price is continually changing, causing the moving average to alter as well.

Simple Moving Average (SMA) Explanation & Trading Strategies

The 50 is a major trend following average to use on the chart. To this point, what you do not want to do is overreact if a stock breaks the average on one or two candlesticks. However, this is also a long signal and we enter the market with a new trade, which is bullish.

The moving average indicator takes into account a certain number of periods when calculating its value. On Jan. 20, the stock broke below the 10-week moving average in heavy volume (3). First American tried to rebound but found resistance at the 10-week average (4), where it once found support.

Guidelines for How to Use the 50 Moving Average

When these points are breached, prices rebound from the moving average line’s support and resistance levels. As a result, it provides an excellent entry and exit point for traders with limited possibilities. To refresh your memories, the 50-day moving average is calculated by taking the closing prices from the last 50 trading days, adding them together, then dividing by 50. Plotting this alongside a stock’s daily movement helps to smooth out the action and give you a better idea where a stock is in a current run. To calculate the 50-day simple moving average, just take a stock’s closing prices for the past 50 sessions, add them up, and then average them.

• A popular alternative to the 200-day SMA is a 255-day moving average that depicts the previous year’s activities.
• The price then creates a top, which is lower than the previous on the chart (pink line).
• Do yourself a favor and do not try and force a longer-term average on a short-term volatile stock.
• These periods can be adjusted, which also modifies the appearance of the line on the chart.
• While this average gives a historical snapshot of price movement, it also changes the prices at which investors acquired and sold assets in the previous 10 weeks.

Meanwhile, when looking at a hourly chart, the 50-period moving average will refer to the previous 50 hours and so on. Then your entry trigger occurs when the price breaks out of the “mini trendline”. To increase the probability of your trades, make sure the price leans against the higher timeframe market structure. If you want to ride trends in the market, then you must give back open profits. There’s no other way around it whether you trade the 50 day ema, 60 day, 100 day, etc. And one approach is to use the 50 day moving average to trail your stop loss.

Day Moving Average vs. 200-Day Moving Average

While this concept works, there are several approaches to identifying the same figure. For example, the Simple Moving Average (SMA) takes all periods the same. The area of value mostly works if it is the first, second or third pullback to the 50 days moving average. From the 3rd pullback and onwards it becomes risky and the market does whatever it wants. You may also want to check the higher timeframes consistency with the one you use and also the lower timeframes to time your entry. You can tweak this 50 day moving average strategy to ride a massive trend.

A sensible addition presented itself in the last week of the base, the week ended Dec. 24, 2021 (2). On Dec. 21, First American retook the 10-week moving average and stayed above it the rest of the week. That was a good show of support and provided a chance to buy or add shares. After a stock breaks out of a base and makes some gains, the first and second pullbacks to the 50-day or 10-week lines can provide a way to add shares. With subsequent pullbacks, there’s a higher risk that the stock won’t bounce back.

Day Moving Average Offered Buy, Sell Signals

Its trendline is a level that prices will not likely breach on a temporary pullback. And it’s useful as a guide for placing a trailing stop on an existing position. Trend-following is a trading strategy where a trader buys an asset that is in an existing bullish trend or one where they short an asset that is already falling. In this case, the 50-day moving average will be a useful exit point. When prices fall upon entering the supply zone or due to sufficient buying pressure, multiple traders place stop orders to short shares and breach the 50-day average. This average corresponds to the highest limit of the supply zone.

Mastering the 50-Day Moving Average and Its Applications

Long-term trend traders commonly use the 50-day SMA, whereas intraday stock or forex traders often employ a 50-day exponential moving average on a one-hour chart. It’s called simple because it weights each day’s closing price the same. This contrasts with the exponential moving average (EMA), which weights recent closing prices more heavily.

Therefore, if you are doing a 200-day moving average, all periods in this case will be the same. Many experts have a challenge with this situation since the overall weight of the data should be skewed towards the most recent events. As mentioned, moving average tends to identify the average price of an asset in a certain period.