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Trading Glossary

RSI

Technical Analysis

What it means

Relative Strength Index: a 0-100 line that measures how fast and how much price has moved recently. Above 70 suggests overbought; below 30 oversold.

Example

A stock that has risen for 10 straight days may show RSI of 78, hinting it is overbought and due for a pullback. A crash that drops RSI to 22 may signal a bounce is near.

Mistake beginners make

Beginners short anything over 70 and buy anything under 30. In a strong trend, RSI can stay overbought for weeks; using it alone against the trend is a losing game.

Related terms

  • MACD — Moving Average Convergence Divergence: an indicator that subtracts a slow EMA from a fast …
  • Bollinger Bands — Two lines plotted two standard deviations above and below a 20-period moving average. They…

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