Moving Average

A technical indicator that smooths price data by calculating the average closing price over a specified number of periods, creating a rolling line on the chart. Simple moving averages (SMA) weight all periods equally, while exponential moving averages (EMA) give more weight to recent prices. The 50-day and 200-day moving averages are the most widely followed, and their crossovers generate the famous "golden cross" (bullish) and "death cross" (bearish) signals.