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Market & trading

Moving Average (50 / 200-day)

The average closing price over a recent window (e.g. 50 or 200 days) that smooths out short-term noise to show trend.

Part of the Market & Trading Basics course · Lesson 3 of 5
Formula
Sum of Closing Prices over N days / N

What it is

A moving average is the average price over a fixed number of recent trading days, recalculated each day so it 'moves' forward. The 50-day average tracks the medium-term trend and the 200-day tracks the long-term trend. Because it smooths daily fluctuations, the line lags the actual price.

Why it matters

Traders use moving averages to read trend direction and as reference levels; a price above its 200-day average is often called an uptrend, below it a downtrend. The pitfall is that moving averages lag — they confirm trends after they start and can give false signals in choppy, sideways markets.

How it's calculated

A simple moving average sums the closing prices over the chosen number of days and divides by that count; it updates each day by dropping the oldest price and adding the newest.

How Quintarthai uses it

Trend metrics including the 50- and 200-day averages are available across the screener and company pages; explore them on a stock's deep-analysis page.

FAQ

What is a golden cross?
It's when the 50-day moving average rises above the 200-day average, which some traders read as a bullish trend signal; the reverse is a death cross.
Is a simple moving average better than an exponential one?
Neither is strictly better — a simple average weights all days equally, while an exponential one reacts faster to recent prices; the choice depends on the trader's goal.
Related terms
See Moving Average (50 / 200-day) on a real company
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