Introduction to stock trading - Technical Analysis

There are two methods of analysing securities to make investment decisions: fundamental and technical analysis. Fundamental analysis involves analysing the characteristics of a company. This information is used to estimate the company's value. Technical analysis approaches the subject in a totally different manner. It does not take into account the value of a company. Technical analysts are only interested in the price movements in the market.

There are many fancy and sophisticated tools technical analysts use. The underlying factor in all these tools is the study of supply and demand in a market in an attempt to determine what direction, or trend, will continue in the future. In simple words, technical analysis attempts to understand the emotions of the other players in the market. When you understand the benefits and limitations of technical analysis, you can use it to your advantage to become a better trader or investor.

The two main pieces of data technical analysts use most when looking at a stock is its last price and volume. With this information graphed over a length of time, charts are formed, and patterns can be identified to suggest future activity.

Just as there are many investment styles in fundamental analysis, there are also many different types of technical analysis tools and techniques. Some people rely on chart patterns. Others use technical indicators and oscillators. Most people use a combination of the two. Both versions exclusively look at the historical price and volume of data. Unlike fundamental analysis, technical analysts don't care if the stock is undervalued, or overbought. The only thing of importance to the technical analyst is the historical stock Prices. This information can help predict the security's future movement.

There are three basic assumptions made when you use technical analysis to analyse charts:
- The market discounts everything
- Prices move in trends
- History tends to repeat itself.

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NYSE historical data downloader

Hi there, fellow stock traders. I assume you're reading this article because you're looking for NYSE historical data.

Before I go into the details of where to get the data, let me explain some facts about the NYSE that you may or may not know about. The NYSE, of course, stands for the New York Stock Exchange. Its one of the biggest stock exchanges in the world, and resides in America. Being one of the biggest stock exchanges has its benefits. Its highly liquid, with thousands of stocks. Whether you're looking for large companies with with stocks that fluctuate frequently, or penny stocks that hardly move at all. Or even medium sized companies that are still growing, the NYSE stock exchange can fulfill those requirements.

You can day trade, swing trade, or choose invest long term in the stocks. Day trading normally involves opening and closing a trade within the business day. Swing traders have trades that can be open from one day to a few days. Long term traders, are mostly known as investors as they can stay in a trade for weeks, or even months long.

There are two main types of stock trading analysis methods: Fundamental and technical analysis. Fundamental analysis looks at the stock's value in the market. Technical analysis looks at a stock's price movements over time, and makes predictions based on previous stock behaviour.

Historical data is generally used for technical analysis, as it is normally fed into software programs. Some basic programming knowledge is then required to write up a script to go through the historical data and generate buy and sell signals according to your trading rules. For example, the simplest types of buy and sell signals could be generated from the crossing over of the 100 day EMAs, and 30 EMAs. Remember, sometimes its not the most complex trading systems that are the most successful. Trading involves some strategy, but mostly involves money management. The simpliest of trading strategies can be successful if combined with sound money management techniques.

The historical data can be downloaded free using the spreadsheet provided at NYSE historical data. Good luck.

Historical Stock Prices

Historical Stock Prices refers to the open, high, low, close, and volume details of stocks. This information is used in technical analysis software programs to understand, and predict the behaviour of stocks in the future.

This information is available for free from yahoo finance. However, the files downloaded need to be manually amended before they can be imported into the software.

Most programs accept historical stock data in metastock format:

Symbol, Date (yyyymmdd), Open, High, Low, Close, Volume

yyyy = year. mm = month. dd = day

The files from yahoo are in the form:

Date (yyyy-mm-dd),Open,High,Low,Close,Volume,Adj Close

Downloading the historical stock data from yahoo manually is tedious, and can take a long time. There's a spreadsheet that will download the data for you automatically, and put it into metastock format: historical stock prices

Software for Technical Analysis

Hi, are you just starting out with trading using technical analysis? I've been actively trading on the NYSE stock exchange for many years now. When I first started, I wanted to ensure I was choosing the best software there was out there. After some research, I found that alot of people were recommending Amibroker. So I purchased a copy for myself. I've been using Amibroker successfully since then.

If you search through forums, and blogs, you'll find that many people are still recommending Amibroker as their preferred technical analysis software. Today, I've decided to write an article recommending Amibroker as well. Please note that I'm not associated with the company in any way. I am not getting paid to recommend their software. In my opinion, it is honestly a great software package. If you don't believe me, simply search for reviews on it on your search engine, and you'll find many others share the same view.

Why is amibroker so great? Because its affordable, value for money, and it works. Because so many people use it, there's loads of help and tutorials out there on how to use the software. You simply need to ask, and someone will help use the software. You don't need to pay thousands of dollars for software that is so complex you don't know how to use it. I've come across many people who have attended sales seminars, only to be sucked into their glamorous sales pitches. After buying their software for thousands of dollars, they find the software is so complex they can't use it. They seek help, only to find they are given a huge, and complex maual.

With amibroker, its used by everyday traders like yourself. They speak in your language, not the high level complex language of manuals. I recommend you check it out for yourself.


If you do decide to use Amibroker as your technical analysis software, you can get historical data, and use it to test out the application.

Best of luck with your future trades.

Paper Trading Or Real Time Trading

For those new to trading, you'll soon realise that success depends on the physchology of trading just as much as buying and selling at the right time.

How would you feel after you've just made 6 losses in a row. Would you hesitate when placing the 7th trade? Or if you had just won 6 times in a row. Would your mental state be any different from when you made your first trade?

To be a successful trader, you'll have to master your emotions. Paper trading therefore is vastly different from real time trading. Losing $10,000 of imaginary money will never have the same physchological impact as losing real money. Personally I think paper trading is a waste of time. Your reactions when it comes to paper trading can't be compared to real time trading.

Its much better to trade using real money, and real emotions. Begin with a small account. A few hundred dollars should do the trick. What you'll learn from losing, and making mistakes when first starting out is much more valuable than what you learn when making profits. Of course, remember to minimise the losses when you're on the learning curve.

If you're trading using technical analysis, you can get data here: historical data.

Best of luck with your trading.