Allstate is a holding company. Through its subsidiaries, Co. is engaged in the property and casualty insurance business. Co.'s segments include: Allstate Protection, which provides private passenger auto, homeowners, other personal lines and commercial insurance through agents, contact centers and online; Protection Services, which includes Allstate Protection Plans that provides consumer protection plans and related technical support; Allstate Life, which consists of interest-sensitive and variable life insurance products; and Allstate Benefits, which provides voluntary benefits products, including life, accident, critical illness, short-term disability and other health insurance products.
When researching a stock like Allstate, 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 ALL 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 ALL 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 ALL 200 day moving average ("ALL 200 DMA"), while one of the most popular "shorter look-backs" is the ALL 50 day moving average ("ALL 50 DMA"). A chart showing both of these popular moving averages is shown on this page for Allstate. Comparing two moving averages against each other can be a useful visualization tool: by calculating the difference between the ALL 200 DMA and the ALL 50 DMA, we get a moving average convergence divergence indicator ("ALL MACD"). The ALL 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). |
Video: Technical Analysis