WEIGHTED MOVING AVERAGES: THE BASICS
What is the Weighted Moving Average (WMA)?
The weighted moving average (WMA) is a technical indicator that traders use to lớn generate trade direction and make a buy or sell decision. It assigns greater weighting to recent data points and less weighting on past data points. The weighted moving average is calculated by multiplying each observation in the data phối by a predetermined weighting factor.
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Traders use the weighted average tool khổng lồ generate trade signals. For example, when the price action moves towards or above sầu the weighted moving average, the signal can be an indication khổng lồ exit a trade. However, if the price action dips near or just below the weighted moving average, it can be an indication of a favorable time khổng lồ enter a trade.
Using the weighted moving average to lớn determine trkết thúc direction is more accurate than the simple moving average, which assigns identical weights khổng lồ all numbers in the data set.
Summary
The weighted moving average (WMA) is a technical indicator that assigns a greater weighting khổng lồ the most recent data points, and less weighting to lớn data points in the distant past.The WMA is obtained by multiplying each number in the data set by a predetermined weight and summing up the resulting values.Traders use weighting moving average khổng lồ generate trade signals, to lớn indicate when to buy or sell stocks.How lớn Calculate the Weighted Moving Average
When calculating the weighted moving average, the recent data points are assigned a greater weighting, whereas past data points are assigned less weighting. It is used when the figures in the data phối come with different weights, relative to each other. The sum of the weight should be equal to lớn 1 or 100%.
It is different from the simple moving average, where all numbers are assigned an equal weighting. The final weighted moving average value reflects the importance of each data point, and it is, therefore, more descriptive of the frequency of concurrency than the simple moving average.
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Example 1Follow the following steps when calculating weighted moving average:
1. Identify the numbers you want lớn average
The first step is to lớn create a menu of the numbers for which the user needs to find the weighted average. Here, we can use the closing prices of ABC stoông xã for the period starting January 1 to January 5. The closing prices are $90, $88, $89, $90, và $91, with the first number being the most recent.
2. Determine the weights of each number
After identifying the numbers for which to lớn calculate the weighted average, the next step is to determine the weight of each number to know how much each of the numbers weighs. In such a case, we give sầu the highest weighting khổng lồ the recent data point out of a random 15 points, as shown in the table below:
| Date | Closing Price | Weighting | |
| January 1 | $91 | 1/15 | |
| January 2 | $90 | 2/15 | |
| January 3 | $89 | 3/15 | |
| January 4 | $88 | 4/15 | |
| January 5 | $90 | 5/15 |
3. Multiply each number by the weighting factor
After determining the weighting for each number, the next step is to lớn multiply each of the numbers from January 1 to lớn 5 by the corresponding weighting factor and then sum up the resulting values. It is shown below:
| Date | Closing Price | Weighting | Weighted Average |
| January 1 | $91 | 1/15 | $6.07 |
| January 2 | $90 | 2/15 | $12 |
| January 3 | $89 | 3/15 | $17.80 |
| January 4 | $88 | 4/15 | $23.47 |
| January 5 | $90 | 5/15 | $30 |
The formula for the weighted moving average is expressed as follows:
Where:
N is the time period4. Add up resulting values khổng lồ get the weighted average
The final step is khổng lồ add up the resulting values lớn get the weighted average for the closing prices of ABC Stoông chồng.
WMA = $30 + $23.47 + $17.80 + $12 + $6.07
WMA = $89.34
Therefore, the weighted moving average for the period from January 1 to lớn January 5 is $89.34.
Example 2Assume that the number of periods is 10, and we want a weighted moving average of four stock prices of $70, $66, $68, and $69, with the first price being the most recent.
Using the information given, the most recent weighting will be 4/10, the previous period before that will be 3/10, and the next period before that will be 2/10, and the initial period weighting will be 1/10.
The weighting average for the four different prices will be calculated as follows:
WMA = <70 x (4/10)> + <66 x (3/10)> + <68 x (2/10)> + <69 x (1/10)>
WMA = $28 + $19.80 + $13.60 + $6.90 = $68.30
Simple Moving Average vs. Weighted Moving Average
Simple moving average & weighted moving average are the two widely used statistics in the world, & they are used khổng lồ find the average of observations in a data mix.
The main difference between the two statistical measures is that simple moving average calculates the average by summing up all the observations in a data phối và dividing the total by the total number of observations. In simple terms, it applies equal weighting to all the observations in the sample.
On the other h&, weighted moving average assigns a specific weight or frequency khổng lồ each observation, with the most recent observation being assigned a greater weight than those in the distant past to obtain the average.
Related Readings
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