Freeport-McMoRan is a holding company. Through its subsidiaries, Co. is a mining company. Co. operates assets with proven and probable reserves of copper, gold and molybdenum, and Co. is a publicly traded copper producer. Co.'s portfolio of assets includes the Grasberg minerals district in Indonesia, a copper and gold deposit; and mining operations in North America and South America, including the Morenci minerals district in Arizona and the Cerro Verde operation in Peru. Co.'s reportable segments include the Morenci, Cerro Verde and Grasberg (Indonesia mining) copper mines, the Rod and Refining operations, and Atlantic Copper Smelting and Refining.
When researching a stock like Freeport-McMoran Copper and Gold, 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 FCX 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 FCX 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 FCX 200 day moving average ("FCX 200 DMA"), while one of the most popular "shorter look-backs" is the FCX 50 day moving average ("FCX 50 DMA"). A chart showing both of these popular moving averages is shown on this page for Freeport-McMoran Copper and Gold. Comparing two moving averages against each other can be a useful visualization tool: by calculating the difference between the FCX 200 DMA and the FCX 50 DMA, we get a moving average convergence divergence indicator ("FCX MACD"). The FCX 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