Technical Analysis vs Fundamental Analysis

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There are two primary schools of thought regarding investment decisions and security analysis and these are technical and fundamental analysis. Fundamental analysis is a stock valuation methodology that uses financial and economic analysis to envisage the movement of stock prices. According to Tanous (1997), the fundamental data that is analysed could include a company’s financial reports and non financial information such as estimates of its growth demand for products sold by the company, industry comparisons, economy-wide changes, changes in government policies etc. Technical analysis is the forecasting of the future price of a financial asset using primarily historical price and volume data. Technical analysts believe that all information is reflected in the price making fundamental analysis unnecessary. Information from the analysis of price is used to predict what the future price will be. The differences between the two schools of thought are to be revealed as the paper unfolds. The essence of fundamental analysis is that every business has an intrinsic long term worth quite apart from any transitory value that is placed on it by the market. This intrinsic value can be discovered by an assembly and analysis of financial information such as ratios. Fundamental analysis involves analysing the characteristics of a company in order to estimate its value. Technical analysis on the other hand concerns itself with attempting to identify patterns in past price movements. Technical analysts do not attempt to measure a security’s intrinsic value, but instead use charts and other tools to identify patterns that can suggest future activity. The cornerstone of technical philosophy is the belief that all factors that influence market price (fundamental information, political events, natural disasters and psychological factors) are quickly discounted in the market

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