In general, the 50- and 200-day EMAs are used as indicators for long-term trends. When a stock price crosses its 200-day moving average, it is a technical signal that a reversal has occurred. This higher weight of recent price data is useful when analysing volatile markets, where there may be abrupt price changes.

When a shorter-period EMA crosses above a longer-period EMA, it generates a bullish signal, indicating a potential uptrend. Conversely, when a shorter-period EMA crosses below a longer-period EMA, it generates a bearish signal, suggesting a potential downtrend. The EMA can also act as dynamic support and resistance levels, providing traders with valuable information on potential price reversals or continuations. By monitoring the relationship between the EMA line and the price, traders can gauge the strength of the prevailing trend. For example, when EMA crosses below the price in a downtrend, it may signal that a bullish reversal is likely.

What Is an Exponential Moving Average (EMA)?

However, whereas SMA simply calculates an average of price data, EMA applies more weight to data that is more current. Because of its unique calculation, EMA will follow prices more closely than a corresponding SMA. It is unclear whether or not more emphasis should be placed on the most recent days in the time period. Many traders believe that new data better reflects the current trend of the security.

• For example, if the price of a stock in three days is $25, 30, and $28, the SMA is $27.
• The EMA is also relatively different from the simple moving average (SMA).
• For traders who trade intraday and fast-moving markets, the EMA is more applicable.
• Since EMAs place a higher weighting on recent data than on older data, they are more responsive to the latest price changes than SMAs.
• The 12- and 26-day are used to create indicators like the moving average convergence divergence (MACD) and the percentage price oscillato (PPO).

The calculation for the SMA is the same as computing an average or mean. That is, the SMA for any given number of time periods is simply the sum of closing prices for that number of time periods, divided by that same number. So, for example, a 10-day SMA is just the sum of the closing prices for the past 10 days, divided by 10. As you can see, the price tends to reverse when the 14-day and 28-day exponential moving averages cross over.

What Is a Good Exponential Moving Average?

The EMA gives a higher weight to recent prices, while the SMA assigns equal weight to all values. The weighting given to the most recent price is greater for a shorter-period EMA than for a longer-period EMA. For example, an 18.18% multiplier is applied to the most recent price data for a 10-period EMA, while the weight is only 9.52% for a 20-period EMA. On the other, the exponential moving average tends to reduce the lag provided by the SMA. It does this by adding more weight to the recent prices of an asset.

• When the ribbon folds—when all of the moving averages converge into one close point on the chart—trend strength is likely weakening and possibly pointing to a reversal.
• To construct a moving average ribbon, simply plot a large number of moving averages of varying time period lengths on a price chart at the same time.
• It is essential to analyse the direction of the EMA in conjunction with the price position to accurately gauge the trend.
• Some common moving average ribbon examples involve eight separate EMA lines, ranging in length from a few days to multiple months.
• Second, the EMA tends to be relatively accurate, especially when you are identifying reversals.

Conversely, if EMA shoots above the price in an uptrend, it may indicate that a bearish reversal is probable. Although the EMA indicator is automated on most platforms, understanding the mechanism behind it may help traders in using it more efficiently. To calculate the EMA, traders first determine the initial SMA for a specified period, which is then used as the basis for subsequent calculations. The EMA formula takes the previous day’s EMA, multiplies it by a smoothing factor, and adds the result to the current day’s price data.

Advantages of using the exponential moving average

In these circumstances, the short-term moving averages act as leading indicators that are confirmed as longer-term averages trend toward them. Traders sometimes watch moving average ribbons, which plot a large number of moving averages onto a price chart, rather than just one moving average. The preferred number and type of moving averages can vary considerably between traders, based on investment strategies and the underlying security or index. But EMAs are especially popular because they give more weight to recent prices, lagging less than other averages. Some common moving average ribbon examples involve eight separate EMA lines, ranging in length from a few days to multiple months.

If the EMA is sloping upward and is below the price, it generally indicates a bullish momentum. When EMA is above the price and upward-sloping it generally signifies bullish momentum, but with increased resistance. The EMA is designed to improve on the idea of an SMA by giving more weight to the most recent price data, which is considered to be more relevant than older data.

Exponential moving average example

Second, the EMA can tell you whether an asset is expensive or cheap. For example, if a stock is trading at $50 and the 25-day moving average is at $30, it is a sign that it is relatively expensive. This expensiveness usually happens because of a major thing such as strong news or a strong event. In order to learn how to calculate the exponential moving average, the simple moving average should be calculated first to get the initial EMA value. This will then lead you to finding the exponential moving average equation.