Knowledge center · Technical analysis
Moving averages (20/50/200)
The average closing price over the last 20, 50 and 200 trading days — the market’s short-, medium- and long-term trend lines.
Formula
SMA(n) = mean of the last n closes.
Interpretation
Price above a rising average means buyers have been in control over that horizon; below a falling average, sellers. The 200-day is the classic institutional dividing line between long-term uptrends and downtrends.
What good looks like
Price above all three averages, with the averages stacked 20 > 50 > 200 and rising.
What bad looks like
Price below all three with the stack inverted — every holder since is underwater on average.
Typical range
Not bounded — read the price’s position relative to each line, not the line’s level.
Limitations
Averages lag by construction — they confirm trends, they never anticipate them, and they whipsaw in sideways markets.
How OmniSignal uses it
Trend context for every other signal: the same RSI reading means different things above and below the 200-day.
Where it enters the score
Not a scoring input. The engine’s momentum sleeve uses its own return-based factors; these lines are shown so the reader can verify the trend claim on any chart.
References
Edwards & Magee, Technical Analysis of Stock Trends
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