200-Day Moving Average: Meaning, Importance & Calculation | Espresso

200 Day Moving Average: Everything you Need to Know

The 200 Day Moving Average is a technical indicator used to analyze and identify long-term trends. It is a line representing the average closing price of the last 200 days. It can be applied to any security. If the price consistently rises above the 200 Day Moving Average, it can be seen as an upward-trending market.

Published on 17 January 2023

On the other hand, if the markets consistently trade below the 200 Day Moving Average, it is seen to be a downtrend. Because a lot of people use the 200 DMA, hence it is a useful trend indicator especially in the long term. We will see in this article what the 200 Day Moving Average is and how it works in the world of the stock market.

What is the 200 Day Moving Average?

A 200-Day Moving Average is the average closing price of any stock over the past 200 days. These moving averages vary in their duration depending on the purpose that the traders use for them. It is one of the most widely used and cited technical analysis indicators among investment analysts and financial journalists. This long-term Trend is used in everything from trading to risk management.

How important is Trend in the 200-Day Moving Average?

Knowing the Importance of Trends in the 200-Day Moving Average is essential. First, let's look at what the Trend is. The Trend is the direction of the market or an asset's price. They are identified by the trendlines and determine if there is an uptrend or downtrend.

In the 200 Day Moving Average, the Trend is magnified over a longer time, and this is where its usefulness comes into view. If equal weightage is given to every trading day in the past 200 days, it allows the user to better determine the direction and position of price in the long term.

How to calculate the 200 DMA?

The 200 Day Moving Average is calculated by adding the cloning prices for the last 200 days and dividing it by 200. It is simply how you calculate the average.

200 DMA formula = [(Day 1+ Day 2+ Day 3…. +Day 200)/200]

Each day has a new data point. Adding all data points will create a continuous line that is observed on the chart.

The Importance of 200-Day Moving Average

The 200-Day Moving Average or longer-term moving average helps in identifying the technically

more substantial stocks and scale the market trends to set stop losses.

To find Strong Securities

Traders use this trend indicator to distinguish the 200 Day moving average stocks, i.e., healthier stocks, from the non-healthy ones. A strong stock is one that has performed well above the moving average in the past 200 days and hence helped keep the price high. The companies that perform above their moving average of 200 days point out the financial health of the market and the sentiment of the trader.

Helps identify the Trend

The 200 Day moving average gives the traders an idea about the ongoing Trend in the longer term i.e., if the Trend is an uptrend or downtrend. An uptrend would mean an overall price increase. Of course, this would be followed by many oscillations, but the overall direction would be higher, indicating an uptrend. On the other hand, a downtrend would mean recent lows would be above the previous low, indicating a downtrend. In both these trends, the high and low should be higher than the previous high and previous low, respectively.

Use of the 200 DMA as Support and Resistance

Moving average Trend also gives traders the critical price levels that haven't been breached yet. A deflection in the prices is often witnessed before breaching the moving average unless there has been a strong trigger. In this case, the 200 DMA doubles as a reliable support and resistance level. For instance, traders will go long when prices deflect from the trend line, which doubles up as the support level. It happens when the 200-Day Moving Average trend line is moving upwards. On the other hand, when the trend line rises upward, the traders take it as a hint that the Trend will be reversal in the upcoming term.

Conclusion

The 200-day Moving Average is one of the most popular indicators in measuring price movements and a reliable indicator for studying price behavior in the long run. They even help indicate if there has been a bullish or a bearish market. The 200 DMA has been useful for investors in the long-term Trend. It is a helpful trend indicator tool that investors can use to control exposure to such market environments, which are characterized by a higher loss probability.

For risk mitigation, the 200-day moving average has been proven to be very useful and successful. Hence, it should be a part of any existing system.

Chandresh Khona
Team Espresso

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