The methods used to analyze securities (stocks) and make investment decisions are vast, but tend to fall into one of two categories known as fundamental analysis and technical analysis. Fundamental analysis involves researching and evaluating the characteristics of the company including the evaluation of company financial statements in order to approximate the value of a company. Technical analysis, on the other hand, pays no attention to the value of a stock and cares more about price movements based on general market psychology and historical trends.

There are numerous charting indicators available and over time I will attempt to discuss and educate our readers on these types of indicators and how to read them for important data. However, for the scope of today's article, I simply wanted to introduce our readers to the basics of technical analysis and how it can be helpful when completing due diligence on investment or trading opportunities. If you understand the benefits and limitations of technical analysis, it can give you a new set of tools or skills that will enable you to be a better trader or investor.

Technical analysis can be defined as a method of evaluating future security prices and market directions based on statistical analysis of variables such as trading volume, price changes, trends, patterns, and formations in charts. These formations within the charts are, as believed by technical analysts, said to be in large part dictated by the psychological makeup of the market.

Through the use of charting, analysts attempt to explain the supply and demand of a security and help in determining the emotions of those in the market. Technical analysis is based on the basic theory that the price of a stock reflects everything that could or has affected a stock. Therefore, fundamental factors as well as economic factors like the overall psychology of the market are all priced into the stock, which leaves only the analysis of supply and demand in predicting the price movement of the forecasted stock.

Analysts believe that future prices are dictated by previously established trends, attributing the repetitive nature of these trends to the basic makeup of the markets psychology. They believe that market participants tend to react in common ways to events within the market, therefore through the use of technical charting, patterns can be used to analyze price movements and understand these trends.