Occidental Petroleum Corporation is an international energy company with assets primarily in the U.S., the Middle East, and North Africa. Co. is an oil and gas producer in the U.S., including a producer in the Permian and DJ basins, and the offshore Gulf of Mexico. It operates through three segments: oil and gas, chemical and midstream and marketing. The oil and gas segment explores for, develops, and produces oil (which includes condensate), natural gas liquids (NGL) and natural gas. The chemical segment primarily manufactures and markets basic chemicals and vinyls.
When researching a stock like Occidental Petroleum, 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 OXY 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 OXY 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 OXY 200 day moving average ("OXY 200 DMA"), while one of the most popular "shorter look-backs" is the OXY 50 day moving average ("OXY 50 DMA"). A chart showing both of these popular moving averages is shown on this page for Occidental Petroleum. Comparing two moving averages against each other can be a useful visualization tool: by calculating the difference between the OXY 200 DMA and the OXY 50 DMA, we get a moving average convergence divergence indicator ("OXY MACD"). The OXY 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). |