Abbott Laboratories is a global healthcare company involved in the discovery, development, manufacture, and sale of diverse healthcare products. It operates through four segments: Established Pharmaceutical Products, which focuses on international sales of branded generic pharmaceuticals; Diagnostic Products, which provides diagnostic systems and tests globally; Nutritional Products, offering a wide range of adult and pediatric nutrition products worldwide; and Medical Devices, which includes products for rhythm management, electrophysiology, heart failure, vascular, structural heart, neuromodulation, and diabetes care.
When researching a stock like Abbott Laboratories, many investors are the most familiar with Fundamental Analysis — looking at a company's balance sheet, earnings, revenues, and what's happening in that company's underlying business. Investors who use Fundamental Analysis to identify good stocks to buy or sell can also benefit from ABT Technical Analysis to help find a good entry or exit point. Technical Analysis is blind to the fundamentals and looks only at the trading data for ABT stock — the real life supply and demand for the stock over time — and examines that data in different ways. One of those ways is to calculate a Simpe Moving Average ("SMA") by looking back a certain number of days. One of the most popular "longer look-backs" is the ABT 200 day moving average ("ABT 200 DMA"), while one of the most popular "shorter look-backs" is the ABT 50 day moving average ("ABT 50 DMA"). A chart showing both of these popular moving averages is shown on this page for Abbott Laboratories. Comparing two moving averages against each other can be a useful visualization tool: by calculating the difference between the ABT 200 DMA and the ABT 50 DMA, we get a moving average convergence divergence indicator ("ABT MACD"). The ABT MACD chart, in conjunction with the chart of the moving averages, basically helps in visualizing how the moving averages are showing convergence (moving closer together), or divergence (moving farther apart). |
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Video: Technical Analysis