Among many factors, market price trends are affected by broad shifts in economic conditions. One might say the economic input accounts for a percentage of the pricing function, particularly at the index level. Hence, when expectations about economic data points shift, the market shifts as well, often powerfully. At times, however, those expectations shift excessively and... We recently wrote a piece titled "Does the U.S. Need a Strong Dollar?" in which we argued that the fall of the dollar was 1) not unprecedented and 2) would only help the U.S. economy through export relief. A number of readers commented that, even though a falling dollar may help the broad economy, a weak currency will harm asset prices and stunt future growth... Among many factors, market price trends are affected by broad shifts in economic conditions. One might say the economic input accounts for a percentage of the pricing function, particularly at the index level. Hence, when expectations about economic data points shift, the market shifts as well, often powerfully. At times, however, those expectations shift excessively and... Depending on which investor you are talking to, technical analysis can be considered either a very useful tool or voodoo magic. Since we have begun to add a sample of this type of equity analysis to your site, and some questions have arisen, we thought an explanation of some of the basics could prove useful to those with an interest. The objective of technical analysis... Part I of this series included information on support and resistance, and on ways to determine the underlying bias of the market or individual stock through the use of trendlines, channels and moving averages. Also included were details on when the mind may be overextended through the use of oscillators. The next logical step... When the markets are volatile and substantial price swings are the norm, attempting to grasp the overall picture as viewed through a deluge of warnings, prospects for a slowdown, rate cuts and earnings season is far from easy. Instead of getting bagged down in the myriad variables that could potentially drive prices, why not let market... What is A Tactic? An investment tactic is an actual routine or practice that you follow, in order to make the "buy" decision. It differs from a strategy, which is a broader approach (buy stocks in booming markets, for example.) As an example in a June 22, 2000 Stock Brief, we gave... Technical analysis (TA) is the interpretation of data present in stock charts. although the basic assumption of future price movements being dependent on past price movement is never certain, many traders use TA as their primary means of making tactical buy and sell decisions. The daily moving average is a popular technical indicator... Whenever you read Briefing.com's Stock Ticker page for overall market conditions, you should always look at the advance/decline numbers, in addition to looking at the major market indexes. While the market indexes give an immediate sense of the direction of the overall market, the advance/decline numbers give you the best feel for the... On Briefing.com's Stock Market update page, we provide an update and explanation of market conditions continually during the day, with frequent references to the market indexes. The following is a brief definition of each index, and its relevance. Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA: The most... For much of the late 1990s, the Price/Sales ratio was more important than the Price/Earnings ratio. Therefore, you needed to know the price/sales ratio of every stock you owned by heart. Though the market is not always willing to focus on sales over earnings, it still happens when new companies have not yet achieved profitability... When the sale of a security occurs on an exchange, the transaction is said to be a tick. Here's the history of the Tick and why traders keep an eye on it. The term tick comes from the days when every transaction on the New York Stock Exchange was recorded by hand and sent out by telegraph to a system of connected... Of all the fundamental statistics available for comparing stocks, the Price/Earnings ratio is the single most widely used. Although all of the other ratios involving a stock's price -- Price/Sales, PE/Growth, Price/Book, Price/Cash Flow -- have value, the P/E ratio is the most well known, most often quoted when only one statistic... When people ask how the market did today, they rarely ask about volume. Yet volume tells as much about market strength as price movements in the Dow Jones Industrial Average or the Standard Poor's 500 Index. Volume indicates how meaningful a market movement is. Large percentage increases accompanied by large volumes are... One of the seldom-followed indicators for the daily direction of the market is the TRIN, or ARMS index. Briefing has noticed that at times, however, this index has been a pretty good leading indicator of the daily direction of the market. The TRIN is a calculation that relates up-volume to down-volume for the...