The Gap is a collection of lifestyle brands providing apparel, accessories, and personal care products for women, men, and children under the Old Navy, Gap, Banana Republic, and Athleta brands. Co. is an omni-channel retailer, with sales to customers both in stores and online, through Co.-operated and franchise stores, Co.-owned websites, and third-party arrangements. Co. has Co.-operated stores in the U.S, Canada, Japan, Italy, China, Taiwan, and Mexico. Co. also has franchise agreements with unaffiliated franchisees to operate Old Navy, Gap, Banana Republic, and Athleta stores throughout Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa.
When researching a stock like Gap, 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 GPS 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 GPS 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 GPS 200 day moving average ("GPS 200 DMA"), while one of the most popular "shorter look-backs" is the GPS 50 day moving average ("GPS 50 DMA"). A chart showing both of these popular moving averages is shown on this page for Gap. Comparing two moving averages against each other can be a useful visualization tool: by calculating the difference between the GPS 200 DMA and the GPS 50 DMA, we get a moving average convergence divergence indicator ("GPS MACD"). The GPS 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). |