Principal Financial Group is an insurance holding company. Co. provides businesses, individuals and institutional clients a range of financial products and services through its financial services companies. Co.'s segments include: Retirement and Income Solutions, which provides products and services for retirement savings along with select products for retirement income; Principal Global Investors, which manages assets for investors by providing equity, fixed income, real estate and other alternative investments; and Principal International, which provides pension accumulation products and services, mutual funds, asset management, income annuities and life insurance accumulation products.
When researching a stock like Principal Financial Group, 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 PFG 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 PFG 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 PFG 200 day moving average ("PFG 200 DMA"), while one of the most popular "shorter look-backs" is the PFG 50 day moving average ("PFG 50 DMA"). A chart showing both of these popular moving averages is shown on this page for Principal Financial Group. Comparing two moving averages against each other can be a useful visualization tool: by calculating the difference between the PFG 200 DMA and the PFG 50 DMA, we get a moving average convergence divergence indicator ("PFG MACD"). The PFG 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