Dow is a holding company. Through its subsidiaries, Co. delivers science-based products and solutions for its customers. Co.'s segments are: Packaging and Specialty Plastics, which focuses on polyolefin product portfolio to deliver plastics to customers; Industrial Intermediates and Infrastructure, which produces and markets ethylene oxide and propylene oxide derivatives that are aligned to market segments as appliances, coatings, infrastructure and oil and gas; and Performance Materials and Coatings, which utilizes Co.'s acrylics-, cellulosics- and silicone-based technology platforms to serve the needs of the architectural and industrial coatings, home care and personal care end-markets.
When researching a stock like Dow, 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 DOW 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 DOW 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 DOW 200 day moving average ("DOW 200 DMA"), while one of the most popular "shorter look-backs" is the DOW 50 day moving average ("DOW 50 DMA"). A chart showing both of these popular moving averages is shown on this page for Dow. Comparing two moving averages against each other can be a useful visualization tool: by calculating the difference between the DOW 200 DMA and the DOW 50 DMA, we get a moving average convergence divergence indicator ("DOW MACD"). The DOW 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