Moving Average Formula and Strategy Guide

Simply put Moving Averages are a math calculation that averages out a series of numeric values. A moving average series can be calculated for any time series. In finance it is most often applied to stock and derivative prices, percentage returns, yields and trading volumes. There are three universal types of moving averages to calculate. The simple moving average is one of the most popular indicators used and is easy to calculate. There is also a weighted and an exponential moving average which are more sensitive to price fluctuations but more complicated to formulate.