The discipline of technical analysis is unconcerned with
fundamental measures of valuation. In a shopping centre, a
fundamental analyst would go to each shop, study the product
that was being sold, and then decide whether to buy it or not.
By contrast, a technical analyst would sit on a bench in the
shopping centre and watch people go into the shops. Disregarding
the intrinsic value of the products in the shops, his or her
decision would be based on the patterns or activity of people
going into each one. Technical analysis is applicable to stocks,
indices, commodities, futures or any tradeable instrument where
the price is influenced by the forces of supply and demand.
Price refers to any combination of the open, high, low or close
for a given security over a specific time frame. The time frame
can be based on intraday, daily, weekly or monthly price data
and last a few hours or many years. In addition, some technical
analysts include volume or open interest figures with their
study of price action. Technical