home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- GLOSSARY OF FINANCIAL TERMINOLOGY PAGE 1 OF 9
-
- This chapter explains a number of financial terms as they are used in
- the Stock Charting System. It is not intended to be a complete text on
- financial management or technical analysis.
-
- Many books on technical analysis are available, and entire college
- courses are taught on the subject. Check out a local library, or visit
- a book store that has a good business section. The author is not recom-
- mending any particluar book, as new ones come out all the time and old
- ones go out of print.
-
- Annualized Potential Return: The expected total return for a stock over
- a 3- to 5-year time frame. The Stock Charting System computes
- this value using the 3-5 year price goal and the annual dividend
- which you enter from the View screen for Individual Securities.
- See Chapter 11. The 3-5 year price goals can be obtained from
- Value Line Investment Survey or other research materials.
-
- Annualized Potential Return is shown on the bar graphs as a per-
- centage range, if the required data is available. The calcula-
- tion is equivalent to the expected Internal Rate of Return.
-
- GLOSSARY OF FINANCIAL TERMINOLOGY PAGE 2 OF 9
-
- BETA: A measure of the volatility of the price of a security; how the
- price of that security behaves in relation to the market itself.
- For example if a stock has a Beta of 1.25 and the market goes up
- 10%, the price of that stock may tend to go up 12.5%. Beta is
- calculated based on how the market and how individual stocks or
- funds have behaved in the past.
-
- Beta for stocks can be obtained from the Value Line Investment
- Survey. Beta for funds can be obtained from various fund
- guides. The Stock Charting System does not compute individual
- Betas.
-
- Crossover: A special type of oscillator that depicts the difference be-
- tween two moving averages, rather than between a moving average
- and its corresponding price. So-called because the two averages
- can cross each other, which causes the vertical bars to switch
- direction in relation to the zero reference line. See Oscilla-
- tor.
-
-
-
- GLOSSARY OF FINANCIAL TERMINOLOGY PAGE 3 OF 9
-
- Moving Average: The average of a specific number of consecutive prices
- of a security, which is computed each day or each week and then
- plotted as a continuous line on the bar chart. It shows the
- general trend of security prices by smoothing out the abrupt
- variations in individual prices each day or week. Each average
- calculation has the same period, that is, the number of prices
- included in that average calculation remains constant. There-
- fore each day or week a new price is added to the calculation,
- but the oldest price is omitted, thus the term "moving" average.
-
- The period (number of prices included in the average) determines
- the scope of the indicated trend. A longer period will show a
- longer-term trend; a shorter period will show a short-term trend.
-
- Popular moving average periods are 25 or 50 days (5 or 10 weeks)
- for short-term; 65 or 75 days (13 or 15 weeks) for intermediate-
- term; and 150 or 200 days (30 or 40 weeks) for long-term.
-
- You should keep in mind that a moving average is a LAGGING stat-
- istic - that is, it portrays a PAST trend, not a future one.
-
- GLOSSARY OF FINANCIAL TERMINOLOGY PAGE 4 OF 9
-
- Multiple: See Price/Earnings Ratio, which is sometimes called a
- "multiple".
-
- Offset: Pertains to Moving Averages. There is a school of thought that
- a moving average should be plotted in relation to the center of
- its period, rather than to the last element of its period as it
- is normally plotted. In the Stock Charting System, the Offset
- option in the Graphics Display Option screen causes all moving
- average lines to be offset horizontally to the left by half
- their corresponding periods.
-
- On-Balance Volume: A popular momentum indicator based on the daily sales
- volume of a security. It tends to show the strength of a trend
- rather than the trend itself.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- GLOSSARY OF FINANCIAL TERMINOLOGY PAGE 5 OF 9
-
- Oscillator: A histogram (a series of vertical bars emanating from a hor-
- izontal zero-reference line) showing the algebraic difference
- between security prices and their corresponding moving average
- values over time. If the difference is positive the bar goes up
- from the reference; if the difference is negative the bar goes
- down from the reference.
-
- It's another way of showing moving averages, and can be valua-
- ble if the bar chart appears cluttered because moving average
- values are close to their corresponding prices.
-
- Oscillators are significant in trading strategies that are based
- on the relationships between stock prices and corresponding mov-
- ing averages. Oscillators can display these relationships in a
- more obvious manner, especially on a monochrome screen.
-
- The author of the Stock Charting System is not a registered in-
- vestment advisor, and therefore cannot recommend any particular
- trading strategy.
-
-
- GLOSSARY OF FINANCIAL TERMINOLOGY PAGE 6 OF 9
-
- To plot an oscillator from a bar graph display on your screen,
- press the alphabetic "O" key. Then press C to select the Cross-
- over/oscillator function, and press G again. If you have selec-
- ed a single moving average, you will get an oscillator. If you
- have selected two or more moving averages, you will get a cross-
- over. The two plots are identified by the captions "osc" and
- "xover" on the bar chart.
-
- Price/Earnings Ratio or P/E Ratio: A stock's current price divided by
- the company's annual earnings. For example the stock of a com-
- pany that has earnings of $5.00 per year sells for $50.00. Its
- P/E ratio is 10.
-
- Usually, stocks that have high growth - such as technology
- stocks - tend to have high P/E ratios, and stocks that have
- lower growth - such as utility stocks - tend to have low P/E
- ratios. This is because one is usually willing to pay more per
- dollar of earnings for a high-growth company. P/E ratios as a
- whole tend to vary with the market, the economy, and the corpor-
- ate outlook.
-
- GLOSSARY OF FINANCIAL TERMINOLOGY PAGE 7 OF 9
-
- Relative Strength: A special type of graph which measures the relative
- strength of a selected security versus a "tagged" security.
- See Chapter 10 about how to "tag" a security, and Chapter 19
- for information on how to display the relative strength chart.
-
- The "tagged" security is usually a composite index such as the
- S & P 500. The relative strength chart tells you how your stock
- or fund is doing, relative to a "standard" which depicts the
- performance of the market as a whole. However, the "standard"
- can be any security, which means you can analyze the strength
- of Compaq Computers relative to IBM corporation.
-
- Security Type: The general classification of securities. The types of
- securities recognized by the Stock Charting System are as
- follows, in the order in which they normally appear:
-
- Cash accounts, margin accounts, commerical paper, Treasury
- securities, municipal bonds, corporate bonds, preferred stocks,
- common stocks, mutual funds, warrants, put and call options,
- precious metals.
-
- GLOSSARY OF FINANCIAL TERMINOLOGY PAGE 8 OF 9
-
- Technical Analysis: The process of analyzing securities based only on
- the movements of their sales volumes and market prices. Tech-
- nicians (those who perform technical analysis) use programs like
- the Stock Charting System (and more complex tools), and pore
- over various kinds of graphs and charts.
-
- This is opposed to fundamental analysis, which is based on the
- corporate balance sheet and income statement and the nation's
- economy.
-
- Trading Band: A pair of lines plotted above and below their correspon-
- ding moving average, by a specified percentage of that average.
- For example a 10% trading band consists of two lines, one
- plotted 10% above the moving average and one plotted 10% below
- the moving average.
-
- The idea is to define the range of prices over which a security
- tends to trade, and to identify an excursion outside that range
- (sometimes called a "breakout"). Trading bands seem to work
- well when the Offset option is activated.
-
- GLOSSARY OF FINANCIAL TERMINOLOGY PAGE 9 OF 9
-
- To specify a trading band when a bar chart is visible on the
- screen, press the alphabetic "O" key. Then type "F" and enter
- a percentage value for the moving average you want that trading
- band to apply to. Try 10% for a start, and then experiment!
-
- Yield: A security's annual dividend or interest expressed as a percent-
- age of the security's price. For example a stock that sells for
- $50.00 per share and pays an annual dividend of $2.50 is yield-
- ing 5% ($2.50 / $50.00 x 100). Utility and financial stocks
- tend to pay higher dividends; high-growth stocks tend to pay
- lower dividends (or none at all) because profits are re-invested
- in the business.
-