E*TRADE Financial is a financial services company that provides brokerage and related products and services for traders, investors, stock plan administrators and participants, and registered investment advisors. Co. also provides investor-focused banking products, including sweep deposit accounts to customers. Co. delivers a range of products and services through its retail and institutional channels across the following five product areas: Trading, Investing, Banking and Cash Management Capabilities, Corporate Services and Advisor Services.
When researching a stock like Etrade Financial, 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 ETFC 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 ETFC 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 ETFC 200 day moving average ("ETFC 200 DMA"), while one of the most popular "shorter look-backs" is the ETFC 50 day moving average ("ETFC 50 DMA"). A chart showing both of these popular moving averages is shown on this page for Etrade Financial. Comparing two moving averages against each other can be a useful visualization tool: by calculating the difference between the ETFC 200 DMA and the ETFC 50 DMA, we get a moving average convergence divergence indicator ("ETFC MACD"). The ETFC 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). |